


From Sky to Earth

by Night-Mare (Aoife)



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different Flames, Alternate Universe - Different Guardians, Desert Hayato (Reborn!), Earth Reborn (Reborn!), Earth Spectrum Flames, Earth Tsuna (Reborn!), Flame Active Character(s), Flirting, Forest Shoichi (Reborn!), Gen, Glacier Kyouya (Reborn!), Glacier Verde (Reborn!), Guardians Crushing on Their Earth/Sky, Implied/Referenced Cozart/Giotto, Innuendo, Kissing, M/M, Mama Bear Reborn, POV Reborn (Reborn), Reborn Is Confused, Reborn Is So Done, Reciprocated Crushes, River Takeshi (Reborn!), Stolen Kisses, Strongly Implied Off-Screen Sex, Swamp Bianchi (Reborn!), Swamp Nana (Reborn!), This Is Why You Don't Seal Kids, Unreliable Narrator, Verde Is Having Far Too Much Fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-02-15 05:42:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 72,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13024461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare
Summary: He fires a Dying Will Shot at the child he's been sent here to tutor by the Vongola Ninth. What he expects is for Tsunayoshi Sawada to burst into Sky Flames; he’s from Primo’s Line, after all, for all that he’s timid and Sealed.And he does, but rather than the brilliant orange ethereal Flames he was expecting they're darker anddenser.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OnceABlueMoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceABlueMoon/gifts).



He fires a Dying Will Shot at the child he's been sent here to tutor by the Vongola Ninth. What he expects is for Tsunayoshi Sawada to burst into Sky Flames; he’s from Primo’s Line, after all, for all that he’s timid and Sealed.

And he does, but rather than the brilliant orange ethereal Flames he was expecting they're darker and _denser_. Significantly so; they looked far more like magma than anything he was used to seeing from Timoteo, and had a steady sort of stability that were lacking from the youngest Vongola boy's orange-red Wrath Flames. And they have an effect on local gravity that he’s only ever seen when he’d met with one of the Ranking Princes. That leaves him cursing at the possible implications of what he’s seeing, and he hits his new student with a ten-ton Leon mallet _before_ he could do anything that _might_ draw further attention; a possible connection to the Ranking Family wasn't a complication that he'd prepared himself to deal with.

He curls a hand around the pacifier around his throat, and makes use of the few minutes of the real 'adult' illusion that he and the other Arcobaleno pay Mammon _through the nose_ for, in order to carry the child back to their house. He drops the boy on the boy’s own bed, and has examined him by the time it wears off, and he was left with a complicated puzzle.

The boy's Flames had _something_ like the 'harmony' trait, but even when he consciously tried to reach out to what should have been Sky Flames, their Flames were just incompatible. It wasn't that he was too strong for the child, like he had been for Dino and for a number of other Skies, but rather that he was completely and utterly incompatible. Fuck. He tapped his fingers on his thigh, trying to decide what his next move should be, and Leon transformed into a satellite phone - which was a huge fucking hint.

Especially as the phone was already dialling; he’s curious as to who Leon thinks he needs to talk to. He’s half surprised when Verde answers the phone with a barked “What?”

"Verde, I have a Flame-based conundrum here that needs your attention, and given it concerns his heir, you can charge your expenses to Don Vongola if you come and consult." Verde makes an interested sound and he knows he's hooked the Lightning Arcobaleno with the offer of funding and a puzzle. He just hopes that he isn't going to regret this at a later date.

It's entirely possible he will regret calling in Verde, but if he can't make Tsuna into Neo-Primo, which he doubted he would be able to do, given the anomaly in his Flames, then putting multiple Arcobaleno on his side was the next best bet. And Verde was both unaligned, and was generally of the opinion that he was the _only_ one that was allowed to mess with one of his experimental subjects. (This he knew from long experience; of all of them, Verde was mostly likely to swoop in and rescue Skull from himself on the basis that finding another Cloud willing to test out his inventions would be almost impossible, and on the rare occasion he got into trouble, Verde was the one that showed up, tested out some sort of healing device on him, then disappeared again.)

He shook his head. How he presented his new student to the wider Flame Mafia could wait. Right now he should check in on the other, civilian options for the child's guardians that the CEDEF Sky had identified for his son on his last visit to Namimori, and check to see what state their Flames were in. It would be interesting to see if they were as odd as his new student's Flames, or if they were more familiar in their presentation. He would also need to summon his former students soon; it was possible that part of the unusual presentation of Tsuna’s Flames was that the Seal was having an adverse affect, and pipsqueak-Dino would be a better choice than either the Ninth or Iemitsu to work with him to remove it. He'd seen Idiotsu with Basil, and he was too rough and ready for the timid child he'd found in Japan; he'd have to keep him away for as long as possible lest Idiotsu crush the boy under the weight of his Flames and his personality as he had done his notional apprentice.

It's hard to leave the boy to go and check on the potential Guardians; he's got a seriously soft spot for his students; it's why he fights taking on a new student. He still has a soft spot for Shamal, and there was Bianchi and Dino, and even Skull, as well. He'd had to teach the youngest of the Arcobaleno how to function within the Flame Mafia, after all. If they're healthy, they're his to torture, but the moment they're ill or injured or threatened by another, he's the grumpiest Mama Bear in the world. (And he's not impressed with Nana; it's possible that it's Idiotsu's fault, and he's not sure whether he wants to deal with the repercussions of trying to remedy her state until he knows whether his student is to be Decimo, and can prevent Idiotsu messing her up again.)

Tsuna is his, and he gives into his instincts with a grumble and leaves Leon to guard his new student.

The Cloud candidate is most definitely _not_ a Cloud. And he's going to need to talk to Fon, because he hadn't realised that the Storm had any Family left; he’d been under the impression that all of the Arcobaleno were orphans, without kith _or_ kin. But then none of this was making a terrible amount of sense; and he grumbled and headed for the other pseudo-civilian Idiotsu had picked out, not caring about the killing intent he was radiating. He stalked through Namimori, wreathed in his weak Mist Flames to deflect attention from his size, but people flinched back anyway; he would work on accustoming people to his presence in the town in a few days, but for now he didn't want to deal with well meaning bullshit.

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto hisses when he enters his restaurant and makes a warding sign and _that_ was interesting; even his weak Mist Flames were stronger than most Mists, and for Tsuyoshi to see through his illusion so easily ... he shook his head and hopped up onto one of the stools.

"Fugu, please, Tsuyoshi." It’s a dare for the Rain to poison him; he doesn't think that the man will, but if he’s judged him _wrong_ , he's also _entirely_ capable of shaking off blowfish poison anyway - not that that's public knowledge.

"Don't tempt me, Reborn." He smiles at the rejoinder, and Tsuyoshi frowns. "Why _are_ you here?"

"To evaluate your son as an Element for a Vongola Sky. Or at least that's the _official_ reason." His tongue is planted firmly in cheek; he’s still testing the Rain.

"Are you sure you want the fugu?" He grins at the Rain’s response, and holsters his weapon.

"I'm sure. I was rather hoping to enlist you in some chaos, Autumn Rain. And the Vongola Sky in question is Tsunayoshi Sawada, whose Flames are rather ... odd." His words calmed Tsuyoshi, and the swordsman reciprocated the gesture, placing Shigure Kintoki on the counter between them.

" _He's_ a Sky? He doesn't feel or act like one." The acknowledgement from someone else, a Named assassin and Flame User, that there was something _very_ strange about Tsuna’s Flames made him feel a little better about his own surprise.

"As I said. His Flames are rather odd. I went to see the Cloud his father hand picked out for him, and his Flames are odd in a similar way. What are Takeshi's Flames like?" He’s honestly curious.

"Sleepy and sluggish, but that's as I'd expect at his age. Or at least as I _would_ have expected if he hadn't been around a baby Sky - which you're implying he has been - since he was three. They should be near the surface, reaching for inclusion in the Sky’s Harmony. And he really shouldn't be hovering on the edge of a major depressive episode."

"You'd noticed that then." He’d not seen Takeshi for very long when he followed Tsuna to school, but he recognised a brittle mask when he saw one.

"Of course I had." Tsuyoshi looked offended at the suggestion he hadn't noticed. "If he hadn't bounced back by the summer break, I was planning to take him back to his mother's family to see if there was anything they could do to help, or if they were aware of a Sky his age that might be compatible with my boy. Eiko warned me that the need for a Sky ran _very_ strongly in her blood and at least if he bonded, his Sky would be able to help stabilise him while we worked on everything else. You know how badly allopathic medicine interacts with active Flames."

"True. Willing to let me see if he'll fit with young Tsunayoshi? One Dying Will bullet; that's all I want permission to use." He’s desperately curious, but he doesn’t want to shoot Tsuna with one of his rounds again _yet_. Not until Verde or Dino - or at least Shamal - is in Namimori.

Tsuyoshi swallows almost convulsively, and he makes a mental note; the man is a good father, and he’ll need to take that into consideration. "One. One Dying Will bullet. And be absolutely sure my boy has regrets, or you're in a position to resuscitate and heal him, Reborn."

"Deal." He holds up a small hand, covered in the shimmering yellow and dark blue of his Flames, and Tsuyoshi reaches out, his own covered in flickering pale blue Flames, sparkling with flecks of purple Flames, and when their hands met, Autumn Rain was stronger than he'd expected. Almost as strong as Lal Mirch had been on the Fated Day.

He walks back out of the restaurant with a bento, courtesy of the Rain, and a number of _extra_ questions. But those questions could wait. He needed Leon, who was still standing guard over his new student and he needed to make a number of phone calls before the morning. To Trident Shamal, and to both Dino and Bianchi; and he needed to check whether the young independent he'd scouted for Tsuna had left Italy yet.

Tsuna is still sleeping when he climbs back in through the boy's window. He checks on him anyway, and finds his Flames still magma-like, rather than ethereal. Sighing, he settles down to eat the rest of his meal from Takesushi and make the necessary phone calls. Anything else could wait till morning.


	2. Chapter 2

"You are not what I expected Tsuna." He's sitting on the end of the boy's bed, with Leon perched on his hand. Tsuna comes awake with a start, and everything starts to float. The boy blinks and gets himself under control; everything settles down with much more finesse than any of the three Ranking Princes he's met have ever shown.

"And you're not what I expected when Kaasan declared I now had a home tutor, Reborn-san. We'll both have to adjust." The boy eyed him for a moment, and he was pleased at the evidence of a backbone; if he wasn't going to be able to use the same methods as he had with pipsqueak-Dino then a backbone would save him time. "You shot me yesterday, and I lost control, and I don't remember anything after that. What _happened_?"

"Lost control?" The boy frowned.

"I asked my question first. Why did you shoot me?" He raises an eyebrow at the child. That was even more backbone than he'd hoped for; almost too much - it would make it hard to manipulate him into what Timoteo wanted his heir to be, even if the Flame issue could be remedied, but he wasn’t sure that what Timoteo wanted would either be the best for his student, or the best for the Vongola.

"I could shoot you again and demonstrate its purpose." Leon shifted his form.

The boy sighed and shuts his eyes, and he felt gravity increase exponentially, pinning him to the end of the bed. "No. You _won't_."

"I'm going to kill Iemitsu, the Ninth and any of their fucking minions who were _supposed_ to be keeping an eye on you. And I'm going to do it slowly. Carefully. Lovingly. I'm going to feed them their own eyeballs because they sure as hell haven't been using them." He can't move. Not a single muscle, despite trying to use his Flames internally. "Fine. It's called a Dying Will Bullet, and providing you have regrets, it forces you into Dying Will Mode. It's used to jump start training, so that a trainee can get a feel for their Flames quickly or when someone has done something stupid like Seal someone’s Flames, and they’re not available to remove it, then the bullets can be used to break the Seal.”

“Dying Will Flames?”

“That’s a bit complicated. Dying Will Flames make use of Ki - there are other terms for it in Italy, but that’s the one my Sino-Japanese colleague uses, so I’m guessing it’s the one you’d recognise. Everyone has _some_ , but it’s unusual to have enough to actually utilise them without training, and even with training, some people will never manifest them externally. There are seven ‘types’ that roughly match the chakras; of which your father's type, and his Boss's type is by far the rarest - and precedence says you should have them too; your bloodline is notorious for breeding ‘true’." The boy nods thoughtfully. “Now. According to the briefing I was given, your Flames were Sealed by the Ninth eight years ago. So how -?”

"There were bullies, and I was _desperate_. So very desperate and the bullies were pinned down, and I ran and ran and ran.And it being related to Ki sort of explains Hibari-senpai, oo. He's definitely trained. I've seen him sparring with a sensei that looks like him, but is your size." He tilts his head. "I’ve seen him freeze his opponents to make them easier to bite to death when he’s been disciplining adults."

He'd seen the Hibari boy when he lurked around Nami-chuu observing his new student, and he knows precisely who his new student was describing. It was interesting that Fon had been through Namimori frequently enough for Tsuna to refer to him as the should-have-been-a-Cloud-according-to-his-damn-briefing's sensei.

"His name is Fon. He's a colleague." And someone that he was going to have to pin down and interrogate at the first possible opportunity.

"Ah. You've still not answered my question about why _you_ are shooting me. You've told me what the rounds are supposed to do and why you’re using them, but given I _have_ control over _this_ -" The force pinning him to the bed altered, and he suddenly started to float instead, before settling him back down again, "- why you, and why start with a bullet rather than _talking_ to me?" He threw out what remained of his initial plans to mould Tsuna into Timoteo's heir; they weren't going to work. The boy in front of him was too self possessed, too in control of himself, and too likely to _rapidly_ learn how to stop bullets if he kept trying to shoot him. This definitely wasn’t going to be like training pipsqueak-Dino.

"I was working off what was apparently a _very_ inaccurate profile, Tsuna. I'm serious about feeding Timoteo and Iemitsu their eyes." Leon crawled back up onto his hat. "Your father and his Boss run an organisation that relies on Dying Will Flames. The Flames tend to have traits associated with them. Sealing a Flame away seals it’s associated traits away; or at least that’s what the lore _says_. I was working to the provided profile _and_ had made logical interpolations as to what the results of the Seal would be.” Tsuna gave him a sceptical look. "And with your Sky Flames gone, the bullet was the most expedient way to turn you into someone I could train."

"What's in it for you, Reborn?" Clever boy. Which was intriguing; the boy’s school reports weren't fantastic. Either there was lingering damage from the Seal, or his new student wasn’t suited to the verbal/logic teaching style that the Japanese school system favoured. Perhaps he was a kinesthetic learner; not that it mattered - he was an experienced enough tutor to adjust his teaching style to his student.

"Timoteo used the last favour I owed to his mother to get me to train you. I owe - owed - that woman a hell of a lot; we ran together during World War Two." That piques the boy's interest, and he winces internally as he remembers - too late - that World War Two can be an incredibly touchy subject for the Japanese. It was a necessary play, though. He rarely hinted at how old he actually was, but there was a lot of information that he was willing to sacrifice under certain conditions. Including that his loyalties were not to Timoteo, but to the memory of Daniela.

Tsuna softened slightly. The change was almost imperceptible but he'd spent close to a century learning to read body language, and a fourteen year old boy was practically transparent now he was looking at him _properly_ , without Iemitsu’s bullshit twisting his perceptions. "No more bullets." There’s a story behind that request, and he wonders what boobytraps Iemitsu’s idiocy has left for him to trip over.

"Agreed, at least for the moment, Tsuna. I've sent for a colleague and two former students already; I’m hoping that they can help me figure out what's going on with your Flames. Instead, I have permission to use _one_ bullet on someone else; I asked Tsuyoshi for it last night after I’d put you to bed."

The boy didn't respond immediately, and he remembers that it would be unusual for a Japanese child to call even a school _friend_ ’s parent by their given name, but before he could correct his mistake, his student spoke. "Do you mean Yamamoto-san, Yamamoto-kun's father, Reborn-san?"

"I do. He's a swordsman who has _mostly_ retired. He primarily operated as a troubleshooter in the East, as Fon does." He saw the boy hesitate, putting the pieces together including the fact he was going to use one of the bullets on Takeshi Yamomoto, and then he squeaked, and he saw something of the boy from Idiotsu’s ramblings.

"Hiiieee. But Takeshi's the school _idol_!" His new student’s flailing was adorable, and, judging by that blush he was either bisexual or gay. Tsuna probably wasn’t aware of that, depending on how far into puberty he was, and how self aware he was. He would have to make it clear to the boy that while the Flame Mafia could be very Catholic in its appearance, there were a number of alternatives that allowed for blood heirs so the gender of one's partner or partners didn't really matter.

"And his father is a renowned swordsman in the Underworld." Which made his son entirely fair game as far as he was concerned and a much better choice than the two other, near-Active child Rains he'd spotted wandering around Namimori. He'd just have to make sure the boy was fully trained before Xanxus's Superbi found out about his existence. Even if there probably wasn't going to be a Ring Scramble - Xanxus hadn't been seen for _years_ \- Squalo's tendency to demand a battle from any swordsman he met and then kill them if they bored him was well known.

Tsuna squeaked again. He grinned and twisted the knife slightly in retaliation for the way he’d been pinned earlier. "Kyoya - the chairman of your school's disciplinary committee - is already involved in the underworld; all three of the minor Yakuza families in the area answer to him via his second-in-command. He'd make you an excellent ally." And a fitting replacement for the boy's idiot father as head of the CEDEF after he'd cut out the man's eyes and tongue.

"Hibari-senpai is _terrifying_." He raised an eyebrow at his student. It sounded as if despite the unusual Flame presentation that Fon's nephew was a _very_ Classic Cloud. Setting him loose to clean up some of the Families that had been slowly sliding out of the Alliance with Timoteo’s negligence would be delightful to watch.

"Which is why we're going to start with Takeshi. And before school, as he's going to be practising his batting this morning, according to Tsuyoshi." He grinned wickedly. "Which means you have thirty seconds to get out of bed before I eat your breakfast."

His student glared at him, and that was fascinating; his eyes started to bleed magma red rather than sky orange - not to mention the fact that it had taken two years before pipsqueak-Dino had started to pull that trick when he pissed him off - and then he was pinned to the floor again and Leon was in his pistol form and he was firing a Dying Will Shot reflexively. He was both pleasantly surprised by the fact that the bullet stopped before it hit Tsuna, and highly annoyed by the fact as it meant that even when he'd figured out what was going on with the boy's Flames he wouldn't be able to use Dying Will Shots to train him. On the other hand Tsuna was also more graceful than he'd expected, stepping round _three_ of his traps; he'd have to shift to using pressure pads given his student's tendency to reflexively modify atmospheric pressure to protect himself. (He’d been expecting a student almost as clumsy as pipsqueak-Dino whose problems were half biological, and half a consequence of his father Sealing him as punishment for trying to run away from the Family.)

He went ahead and swiped his student's breakfast in retaliation. The fact that Tsuna _let_ him was a touch concerning;he'd have to remedy that tendency. That sort of passivity wouldn't serve his student well in the - he choked as he realised why he had let him steal the food. How the hell had Sawada missed that his wife produced poison cooking when her routine was disrupted? Probably because he visited her so rarely and she was generally ecstatic about his presence, he suspected. He knew from running jobs with Bianchi that a poison cook's cooking was emotion-based, to the point where the only time Bianchi's cooking was safe was when she was truly happy; any sign of worry or frustration turned her food lethal almost instantly. He'd have to send for Bianchi to train Nana, and start developing the woman's self control before she accidentally poisons one of his student's Guardians though.

His student's grin was wicked as he slipped out of the kitchen and Nana _sparkled_ at him until he'd finished the whole meal; at least he'd figured out a resistance to poison cooking when he'd been working with Bianchi so he could eat it without it actually killing him. He caught up with Tsuna halfway to the school, just as the boy ducked into a side alley. He raised an eyebrow and considered whether to force the confrontation his student was obviously avoiding with the pair of siblings coming up the road - the male of the pair was the dead ringer for Knuckle that he'd spotted at Nami-chuu yesterday and there was obviously someone or something attempting to _force_ a reprise of the first generation in the potential tenth generation. If he knew where Aria was, he’d ask her what she’d seen, but his former Sky’s daughter had gone to ground recently. He decided against it though, as he already had a 'test' set up for this morning. And he had active _permission_ for it, too. (Not that that would have stopped him, but he was trying to keep useful resources on side for now.)

"A Mafia Boss should neither avoid the things he fears, nor feed his guests his mother's poison cooking, Dame-Tsuna." His student shrugs.

"And a good house guest shouldn't upset his hostess. Mama's cooking is perfectly fine when she's happy. And Sasagawa-senpai is far too EXTREME at this time in the morning; Yamamoto-kun is bad enough when he's at batting practise." That was interesting and his student was displaying more awareness of the interpersonal dynamics of his classmates than he had expected. He wondered how Tsuna would react to the likely regrets that Takeshi Yamamoto would have; if they'd started bonding as children and then the Seal on Tsuna had interrupted the process, it would likely explain the depression. If he was _really_ lucky they'd insta-bond, or he’d get some fantastic blackmail photos when Takeshi kissed his student.

"True. Tsuna, you need to remember that I have permission for this, and at most it's going to make Takeshi sore from being tossed into Dying Will Mode." He gets a _very_ sassy eyebrow raise from his student, and providing he could get the boy to actual listen to him when it was necessary, it was going to be a _delight_ setting him loose on the wider Flame Mafia. He was very much _not_ in the mould they would be expecting _if_ they'd put together the things the Young Lion said about his son with the fact that Idiotsu was directly descended from Primo and figured out that the heir must be the boy Idiotsu referred to as his 'tuna-fishie'. Which - if he thought the deception had been in any way deliberate - was a marvellous example of a psy-op, but he wasn't going to give the man that much credit; if it had been a psy-op, the man would have briefed him on it in order for him to tailor his reports and the rumours he allowed to trickle back to Italy vis a vis Tsuna's progress. "Stop the bullet and I _will_ find a way to either smack you with Leon -" the chameleon shifted forms to an oversized mallet "- or feed you your mother's poison cooking. Or I will tell the Knuckle-look-alike that his crush is reciprocated."

"... Knuckle?" He facepalmed, but was encouraged by the interest and curiosity he saw in Tsuna's eyes. He would need to teach the boy about the rest of the First Generation, especially given the fact he, Takeshi and Kyoya all strongly resembled them and he’d seen two more lookalikes in Italy; both of whom would only need a little hair dye to complete the illusion. Which meant he had a choice; either encourage (manipulate) Tsuna into forming a lookalike 'set' - which would have been highly tempting if not for his very unusual Flames and the fact that forcing connections generally ended badly - _or_ encourage the boy to find Flame Users with the same peculiarity to their Flames, which meant starting with Takeshi and Kyoya, and then he would have to see what happened when Tsuna was introduced to Bianchi's little brother, who definitely seemed to be a Storm-Cloud judging by his observations and his sister's stories.

"Knuckle was one of the Elements that formed part of Giotto/Ieyasu's 'set' when he was still in Italy. I'll share more of the stories Daniela told me about them later, and we'll check to see if there are any relevant papers in the attic." Or failing that, if Tsuyoshi, Hibari's family, or the family of the Knuckle-look-alike had any; they would probably be a useful bribe for his student, given the interested look he'd just been given. Dino might also have journals from Cavallone Primo and their Guardians that contained references to Giotto and his lunatics, and given that Luce journaled to manage her visions, and had implied her mother and grandmother had too, then Aria probably had access to stories about their antics. "Now. Takeshi has a date with one of my bullets, and I want you to be there; it's highly likely he started bonding with you before the Seal, and if he did, and you're not there, I'll have to chase him across Namimori while he tries to find you. While he's wearing _only_ his boxers."

"Hiiieee." That squeak and the blush was _adorable_ , and even Leon was doing his equivalent of laughing, a vibration that he could feel through the brim of his fedora. He did get to witness one more use of the strange way his student's Flames had manifested before they reached the batting practise area; two boys in Nami-chuu uniforms attempting to bully a redhead, and Tsuna holding them 'down' long enough for the boy to snatch up his satchel and flee, and that was intriguing and another sign that stories about Giotto's antics were going to be useful, and the most likely leverage to get Tsuna to take on the Vongola, or at least his ancestor's mantle. And he caught a whisper of what felt like Sun Flames with the same sort of peculiar twist as his new student’s Flames.

Tsuna had glared at him when he'd eyed the retreating redhead with interest. "Unless you can prove that Shoichi already has 'connections', _no_ , Reborn. He's _brilliant_ and should get to be brilliant, not be pulled down into the Underworld, and I owe him a _lot_. He helped me learn how to control _this_." His student surprises him _again_ , by pulling his Flames together into a ball in much the same way he'd once seen a young Xanxus do, shortly after he’d been plucked off the streets by Timoteo. "Without his help, I'd probably still be randomly sticking myself to the ceiling." Now he really _was_ intrigued. He'd have to investigate and see if he could find - or manufacture - a connection. If Shoichi had been able to help his student figure out at least basic control for something he couldn’t have a frame of reference for, and had done it so well that Tsuna could use his peculiar Flame without any of the typical crutches that the majority of the Mafia used (even Xanxus had his guns for _daily_ use); he'd be fascinated to see what would happen if the redhead was apprenticed to Verde. And for that matter, he definitely needed Pipsqueak-Dino here; the Seal was still in place, though there were obviously Flames leaking past it, and what would his new student be like if the remnants of it were removed?

His student - and he either had far more backbone than even Shamal had had, or didn't realise that he hadn't been engaged in hyperbole when he called himself the World's Greatest Hitman - had slipped away from while he was contemplating what he’d just witnessed Tsuna do, and he made an indignant sound, and then chased after him again. They find Takeshi in the batting cages at the back of the school, and he fires without warning either his victim or his new student; his student manages to avoid reflexive blocking the shot, though it definitely seems to take an effort of Will to avoid doing so, and he catches the distressed flare of Rain Flames - from Tsuyoshi; he's not surprised the man had decided he wanted to witness this - and the more unusual flare from the baseball player. Rain Flames were pale blue, and watery, but if anything this made him think of a rushing River; this was denser and darker, but didn’t seem to be Mist Flames. Not with that greenish shade to them, and it was a single colour rather than the 'mixture' that a dual or multi-flame wielder would emit in the uncontrolled Dying Will Mode the bullet induced. The Flames slashed deep gouges in the floor of the batting cage the boy had been standing in, even as his clothes were shed - and Leon snapped pictures of his student for him; he was concentrating on Takeshi, but the strangled squeak from behind him was far too cute to not be recorded for posterity - "CLAIM TSUNA WITH MY DYING WILL"

"Reborn -" His student’s question was cut off by the _very_ fast moving form of Tsuyoshi's son pressing him to the wall and kissing him thoroughly, and he barely manages to smack the boy with a Leon-mallet to force him back out of Dying Will Mode before more than that happens. Traumatising Tsuna wasn't on his agenda. And that was the second - third if he counted his student's description of the way Fon's nephew's Flames manifested - truly bizarre set of Flames he'd witnessed in this damn town. He could just about figure out how to use Cloud Flames to freeze, but he had no idea how to use Sky Flames to modify gravity nor how to use Rain Flames to _cut_! Fuck he needed Verde here _yesterday_ ; this was getting a little too chaotic even for him. (Especially as he wasn’t causing said chaos himself.)


	3. Chapter 3

"That wasn't any manifestation of Rain Flames I'm familiar with, and I've spent the day trying to replicate them." He pinches his nose and adds castration to his list of punishments for Iemitsu. "The boys are still asleep; I was expecting them to have more resistance to my Flames." Tsuyoshi places a tray with a tea set on it on the table in front of him, and perches opposite on a stool in the still closed restaurant, and pours them both a cup of green tea, laced with jasmine, and he supposes it's a reasonable choice.

"I've sent for Verde, and bribed him from the CEDEF's funds, as their idiot of a Sky is responsible for whatever is going on." He takes a sip of the tea, and lets the Rain Flames infusing it seep under his skin, easing some of the humming tension of the need to hurt Iemitsu Sawada; the man was out of reach, and he had a puzzle to unravel. "Tsunayoshi has some control over his peculiar Flames. Tell me, what do you know about a redhead called Shoichi?"

"Irie Shoichi. Attends Yumei; mother is one of us, though she's very determined to be civilian these days." The assassin across from him makes a face. "Determined enough that the last time that I even implied that she might have been something other than civilian she tried to set me on fire, which made it clear that she had actual skills. Poor kid has some sort of Flame rejection going on; he's a mess of anxiety that doesn't seem to ease even when he's safe."

At least that meant that he could claim Shoichi for his student; the redhead's mother might object to the claim, but if there was Flame rejection going on - and Tsuyoshi had an assassin's senses, and had kept himself off Superbi's radar - then a Sky, or whatever Tsuna's Flames actually were, would be entirely within their right to pick him up and fold him into his set. Even without the appeal of his brilliant mind - he'd trust that his student knew what he was talking about there - that he had the same peculiarity of Flame made him appealing as a Guardian for Tsuna. "I'm fairly Flame resistant; I'll try talking to her later in the week; I already have enough planned for the next few days, including using Tsuna as bait for Fon's student and Verde."

The man opposite him makes a face and sips at his own cup. "I trust you have some way to handle your colleague. I'd hate to enrage the Sky Arcobaleno by killing Verde for experimenting on my son." The threat is entirely reasonable, though how he'd convey to Verde that he was in genuine danger if he pushed the boundaries. He'd deal with that hurdle when he reached it; in the meantime, there was something else to the man's threat, and he pounced on _that_.

"You approve of the match then, Tsuyoshi." The teacup is put down, neatly, carefully, and the man rotates his wrist as if loosening a stiff joint.

"What else could I do, Reborn. You heard my boy's regrets, and I know well enough how those bullets of yours work." There were a handful of things the Rain across from him could do to break the early stages of element-Sky bonding, and he would consider the man entirely within his rights to take his son and return to his wife's Family. He'd already mentioned that he'd been planning to take Takashi to his wife's people after all and in the early stages of bonding, one Sky could displace another under certain circumstances. "And what do you plan to do about the 'Sky' Attraction your student is obviously exuding, Reborn? He may not _be_ a Sky, but you heard Takeshi's declaration as well as I did."

"Supervise them, and make it clear that if they indulge prematurely that I will take it out of their hides."

"Prematurely?" The Rain pours them both another a cup of the tea, and he raises an eyebrow at the realisation that Tsuyoshi is self-medicating with his own Flames. That tea could be used in that fashion was something to be remembered for later.

"Before they've settled into a proper bond, and given we're dealing with unusual Flame manifestations, before I've gotten Trident Shamal and Verde to check them for physical side effects; I have no desire to deal with a repeat of the Poison Scorpion's discovery that food wasn't the only way for her to kill people." She'd been lucky that he'd recognised the problem and been able to assist her in gaining some control; the 'crush' on him that she portrayed, whilst creepy, meant that fewer suitors came seeking her hand. She had particular views on consent (not unreasonable, but not compatible with Mafioso Machismo), and her father's 'bounty' for getting her to the altar had contributed a dozen bodies to the seventeen-year-old's count in the past two years, above and beyond the contracts she took. "Given that we will likely have to figure out a training regime for their Flames from scratch, would you be willing to teach your son at least the basic of kenjutsu, so that he will have a meditative practice to fall back on?"

"He already has kenjutsu, but my silly son prefers his baseball, and would likely have continued to do so until given a reason to pick up the sword properly. Though I suspect that he will soon want to resume his training given he has his not-Sky to impress now." Yes, he could see the swordsman in the not-Rain child, now that Tsuyoshi had admitted that he'd already trained his son. It was there in the solidity of his stance and the movement of his shoulders - and the subtle tailoring of the boy's clothes. Tsuyoshi sighs and drains his cup of tea, and rises from his stool to clear the tea tray, making it clear that the quiet almost-tea-ceremony was done. "We should wake them up; overexposure to my Flames this early in their training will either result in a coma or an inconvenient resistance to Rain Flames." He supposes the man has a point, but he'd been enjoying the quiet time; he'd been expecting to create the chaos when he arrived in Japan, not subject to it, and even he needed a break sometimes.

"Very well." Tsuyoshi at least has the decency to offer his arm, and he hops up onto the Rain's shoulder. Being Arcobaleno-sized could be exhausting at times, and he hadn't been looking forward to the stairs up to the accommodation above the restaurant. He balances there, one hand in the man's hair, and keeps his balance as the man bends to retrieve his Sword. "What's the story behind that Sword, Tsuyoshi?" He's treated to the history of the Sword as they head up to the private quarters, and it's fascinating, especially the revelation that the blade is five hundred years old, and isn't as he'd immediately assumed from the Sword's name - Shower in Late Autumn, Golden Moment - a weapon exclusively of Rain Flame Users. The Sword is hung on the wall, and then they cross to the guest bedroom where Takeshi and Tsuna are still curled around each other, fast asleep under the influence of the Rain's Flames.

Tsuyoshi eases the Rain Flames back out of their systems, and then sits down on the edge of the bed and ruffles his son's hair. "Time to wake up, Takeshi."

There's a mumble of protest from the not-Rain child on the bed, and an attempt to pull Tsuna even closer to himself, and he lets his lips curve into a smile. The boy yawns sleepily and stretches, and while Takeshi doesn't squeak once he notices he's cuddling his student, there's a definite blush dusting his cheekbones. "Tousan? What happened?"

"What do you remember before I made you take a nap, Takeshi-chan?" The not-Rain sits up somewhat, though he doesn't release his student - who unashamedly snuggles into the taller teen's chest, and attempts to stay asleep - and he looks anywhere _but_ at his father.

"I was at batting practice, tousan, and there was pain, and then everything went weird, and all I knew was that I had to find Tsuna and kiss him, and I did, and his lips are so soft, tousan, and I want to do it over and over again." The somewhat incoherent babble amuses him, and Tsuyoshi's Flames have a distinct undertone of 'don't you fucking dare laugh' aimed at him.

"Do you remember that conversation we had about Flames and my plans for the summer, Takeshi-chan?" Tsuyoshi's' voice is soft, ever the Rain, and he shivers at just how dangerous a diplomat the assassin-chef would make, and contemplates the possibility of introducing him to the young Cavallone he'd been training before this errand. Pipsqueak-Dino definitely preferred his Guardians older than him and was more than willing to invest his Flames into helping his own achieve their full potential.

"Does that mean that Tsuna's my Sky, tousan?" He blinks and allows himself to fade slightly, curious about what else the boy will let slip; being able to put the pieces together so quickly, despite the lingering effect of near Arcobaleno strength Flames indicated quicker wits than the boy had demonstrated at school. "I feel better, and all I want to do is protect him, and you said that it might be I needed a Sky to feel better." His student's Flames - he's already learning to read them, a single exposure being enough - rouse, and wraps themselves around Takeshi, who flushes again, and he pokes his student with his own Flames.

There's a delightfully high pitched 'Hiiiieeeee' from his somewhat recalcitrant student as he comes fully awake and realises that he is cuddling one of his crushes and had just slept in the same bed as him, and he resists the urge to cackle. Despite his student's flailing, he doesn't use his Flames to escape, and Tsuyoshi's boy still has an arm wrapped around him and shows no signs of wanting to release Tsuna. He resists the temptation to hit both boys with a ten-ton Leon hammer, given that they were waking up, and they hadn't done anything to deserve it. Yet. (He and Tsuyoshi had been the ones to put them in the same bed after all.)

"You're in the early stage of bonding, yes, Takeshi-chan, but there's something a little peculiar about both of your Flames, so we're not sure whether he is your _Sky_."

"I'm in bed with Yamamoto-kun!" Takeshi's arm tightens, and then the gravity in the room goes wonky in the way he's already becoming familiar with, and Shigure Kintoki is in Tsuyoshi's hand as the adult Rain looks for the threat and Tsuna makes his high-pitched 'Hiiieee' noise again at the Sword's apparent ability to teleport, and this was the sort of chaos he could enjoy. "Yamamoto-san, the gravity is my Flames. It's a self-defence thing. The only threat here is the demon over there -" he's pointed at, and smirks, "- who thinks bullets are a training tool, and that I should become a _Mafia Boss_!"

The Rain shakes his head, his own lips curved into a smile. "He's an Arcobaleno, Tsunayoshi-chan. They're notoriously menaces." He agrees with that assessment; they're all menaces in their own ways. Lal Mirch had cut her teeth with the OSS; Colonello had been a little too keen to volunteer for ridiculous missions; he'd had a bounty on his head from the fascists; Fon had terrorised the Japanese forces in China; Verde had single-handedly pushed Flame Science far enough ahead of mundane knowledge that they'd _thrived_ despite Benito's purge, and he was sure that there were stories that they haven't gotten out of Skull and Viper. Viper because he hasn't been willing to pay the miser's price, and Skull because the Cloud vanishes when anyone tries to probe his history. Perhaps he would have to tell Tsuna some of the stories; the teen's attention had sharpened when he'd mentioned his history. "Reborn more than most; he takes a great deal of pleasure in maintaining his reputation."

Tsuyoshi steps out of the room, intent on putting his Sword back on the rack outside of the bedroom and he hops up into the bed in place of the Rain. "Mhmm. My reputation is well-earned, boys. Maintaining it is just a matter of professional pride. Which means that the two of you are going to get up, and spar, because I have a reputation as a tutor to maintain as well as a hitman. You can commiserate with each other and with the former students I've invited to meet their kohai once they've arrived."

"Reborn -" Leon shifts forms and he totes the resulting mallet with a certain degree of pleased malice.

"Do lead the way to your father's dojo, Takeshi, before I decide that you need another nap." The not-rain boy scrambles out of bed, and Tsuyoshi laughs as the boys streak past him - curiously he can feel that Tsuna is using his Flames in some way, possibly to ameliorate the clumsiness that could come from disHarmony - and he follows them, not bothering to use his Flames to speed up his movement.

"It's polite to ask for permission, Reborn, unless one wishes to find the off-cuts of fugu in one's food."

"I prefer forgiveness, and given your ready skill with that pretty Sword of yours, Autumn Rain, the dojo is the safest place in the town for me to encourage the boys to reach for their Flames. You wouldn't deny me access to it, would you, given that one of those whom I'm training is your son?" The Rain sighs and then offers his arm again, and he jumps up and perches on his shoulder. "And the fugu wouldn't kill me, Tsuyoshi. That sword of yours might if you were to move fast enough, though."

"Noted."


	4. Chapter 4

Takeshi is already dressed in what he assumes is an entirely traditional outfit, but his student - neither Dame, despite the reports, nor a pre-pubescent holding on to childhood, the way Iemitsu had talked of his son - is staring at the garments like he expects them to bite. "Tsuna, do you need a hand with those?"

"Hiiieee. Reborn, you startled me!"

"If you're worried about damaging the dojo or the clothes, Tsunayoshi, they're Mist-treated, and the Mist in question guarantees his work. If you manage to destroy them, he'll just sparkle, want to know what you did to damage them, and make use of the feedback to redesign them. Or if it's modesty, I suspect my silly son forgot to tell you there was a screen you can change behind." Given the way Takeshi drooped at his father's words, the boy had been trying to sneak a peek at his new not-Sky. His student smiles in thanks, vanishes behind the indicated screen and there's a certain amount of swearing, but nothing that sounds like an intervention is required. "The outfit I gave him includes a fundoshi, and they are the foundational layer; I suspect this may be the first time your student has ever worn one." He has to search his memory to remember what the word refers to, and yes that would explain the swearing. He'd have to remember that as a way to torture his new student; perhaps he'd have to make him wear an Imperial-style kimono to watch him flail.

"Mmm. Where would I buy my far too composed student a ceremonial kimono, Tsuyoshi?"

"It won't fluster him, Reborn. Takeshi, warm up with the ninth kata; I think your new Sky suits the short sword better than the long." Perhaps a feminine kimono would fluster his student. The boy's not-Rain would probably appreciate the view, and perhaps he would make Tsuna crossdress to one of the festivals? "Faster Takeshi; you're still hesitating. Tsunayoshi, do you need a hand with your hakama?"

"No, I'm good, but, Yamamoto-san, um, I don't know how to, uh, I've never learned kenjutsu."

"Takeshi will be teaching you the basics, Tsunayoshi; he is at a stage where he needs to teach."

"Pops -"

"Takeshi, if you're about to tell me that you can't teach the basic forms of kenjutsu, then you're not ready to learn to wield Shigure Kintoki." His student's not-Rain whines, but crosses to the rack of shinai, and selects one for his apparently unflusterable student; it's shorter than the one Takeshi's wielding .

"It's not that I can't teach Pops. It's I can't teach  _Tsuna_."

"Takeshi." He jumps down off of Tsuyoshi's shoulder, curious, wanting to see both sides of the conversation.

"I don't want to do anything I shouldn't Pops." Autumn Rain frowns, Flames rippling out into the dojo proper, and Leon scampers down his arm, a precaution against his student's not-Rain making an attempt to uh, claim him. "And if I teach him the way you taught me, I'm going to - I really,  _really_  want Tsuna, Pops." He's confused, but there's something there, and Tsuyoshi pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Takeshi, I taught you that way because you're very much a kinesthetic learner. I don't think Tsunayoshi is, but -" Tsuna emerges from around the screen and Takeshi and Tsuyoshi both freeze. His ridiculously self-possessed student wears the traditional garb well, but the part that had made both the experienced assassin and the new Guardian freeze is that warm molten Flame that's alight in Tsuna's eyes.

Tsuyoshi recovers first; his response had just been surprise. Takeshi has anime-heart eyes though, and Leon shifts under the influence of his Flames. "Takeshi?" His student's Flames - warm and liquid - curl in the dojo, and he has to shake himself and suppress the sudden flare of jealousy; Luce had never been so open with her Flames.

"Takeshi-chan, tenth kata." Tsuyoshi's voice has a faint snap to it and his student's not-Rain flows into it, muscle memory taking over and his student tilts his head and watches. He realises why the boy had wrapped himself in his Flames, and he was going to have to teach Tsuna that riding his Flames wasn't always the solution. Otherwise, this would become a tell for him that others would exploit, and it would make other Skies bristle and snap, especially if they had incomplete bonds with their Guardians. "Tsunayoshi-chan, Takeshi selected a shinai for you, please retrieve it, and I'll check your grip."

He watches his student cross to where Takeshi had placed the shinai and retrieves it; to him, Tsuna's grip looks good, but Tsuyoshi corrects it. While his student seems reasonably natural with the shinai in hand, and it will be good for him to learn from his Guardian as it would give him an idea of how best to utilise him, and validating for Takeshi, he would need to look for a different weapon to be Tsuna's primary. Takeshi finishes his kata and Tsuna beams at him, and he is going to have one hell of a time ensuring they stay within the limits he'd discussed with Tsuyoshi. "Can I call you Tsuna, Sawada-kun? You're my Sky now, and you can call me Takeshi, of course!"

Despite the way his student is riding his Flames, Tsuna flushes, and he smiles at the memory of the started 'Hiiieee!'. "I can't call you Takeshi, Yamamoto-kun! You're one of the school idols!"

"He's your Rain, Tsunayoshi-kun. First names without honorifics are normal within a set, and of course, he's one of the idols; it's in a Rain's nature. Unlike some of your Guardians, a Rain needs to be able to get along with people and manipulate the social hierarchy; we're a Sky's assassin, and people smile at us even as we cut their throats, and no one quite believes that we did it even when we take someone out in public. I've killed in front of diners in my restaurant, and no one blinked." His student goes wide-eyed but maintains his grip on the shinai. "But I'm no threat to you; you've saved my Takeshi-chan."

"Pops -"

"You were slipping away from me, Takeshi, your Flames slowly turning on you without a Sky to moderate them."

"I wasn't that bad, was I?" His student's not-Rain looked distressed, and Tsuna's liquid Flames wrap around all of them. He squirms free of their grip, and he sees Tsuyoshi do so, too, but Takeshi makes a needy sound.

"Worse. Eighth kata, Takeshi; we want you to wait before you do anything about that need because sometimes things can be complicated by Flames, and while Reborn and I know the precautions to take for the standard manifestations, yours isn't standard, silly boy." Training has Takeshi stepping into his kata, and he hops down from his perch and crosses to stare up at Tsuna, who looks back at him steadily, those red Flames molten and lazy in the depths of the boy's eyes.

"You have the opposite problem to the one I was expecting, Tsuna." He softens his voice, allows his own Flames to brush over his new student. "When they told me that you'd been Sealed, I expected to have to break you open, to coax you into reaching for them and using them, but instead they come when your subconscious decides you need them, and they've become a crutch.'

"Hiiieee! But, but they're how I stopped being Dame!" Despite being part way through the kata Takeshi turns on him, Flames rushing over his, wanting to punish him for upsetting his not-Sky and rather than the beat of heavy Rain, the monsoon that hides at the centre of his father's soul, it's more like a raging River and he has to drop his own attempts to hide and  _be_  the Sun to avoid drowning in the rushing torrent.

"Asari no Yamamoto Takeshi." There's a snap of command in Tsuyoshi's voice. "I taught you self-control. Use it. Without it, Shigure Kintoki will consume you whole, and I will not put him in your hands until you can remain  _yourself_ , even when your Sky is threatened."

He jumps up onto his student's shoulder, balancing with one hand in Tsuna's exceedingly fluffy hair. "Lesson One, Tsuna. A Sky is the centre and home to his Guardians. Even if you're  _not_  a Sky in the traditional sense, you've still got traits similar to one, so we'll go with how they manage this problem. You've got conscious control of your Flames; find the nascent bond to young Takeshi; you'll know when you have it." His student hums an acknowledgement, and because he's touching the boy, he's drawn with him - diving down rather than soaring the way pipsqueak-Dino had when taught to do this - and he wraps the ragged cloak of his own Flames around him. He is an alien here, unlike in pipsqueak-Dino's Flames - there he had to moderate himself to avoid scorching his former student - and his new student's Flames make that quite clear to him, attempting to consume him whole. He can see Takeshi though, a river of raging water that had already scored itself into Tsuna's soul.

"What do I do, Reborn?"

"Trail your hand in the river, Tsuna, and urge it to calm and still." He's improvising, but he  _can_  feel his new student smiling and he  _feels_  the River calm and slow, and the pressure eases. "The more you practise this, the easier it will get, and at least he's one of the Guardians you  _can_  soothe. Some of them you will just have to give a target to, and let them kill their way to calmness." He doubted the same trick would work with Fon's student; if the teen froze things in combat, then his Flames had twisted to be ice-based and ice plus fire made for entertaining explosions. (He'd once made the mistake of combining ice and thermite while performing a hit, and had made considerably more mess than he'd intended to.) "Rains can fixate very easily, and I suspect when everything is more settled, that you'll discover there are a number of ways to ... distract him."

"Hiiieee! Reborn!" He still has it, and Tsuna is bright red and shaking his head. "Reborn, I -  _Reborn_."

"That's for the future, Tsuna. For now, you have a training session to participate in, and if you want me to refrain from using the bullets on you ..." Takeshi's Flames rage again, and perhaps he should call the boy's odd Flames 'River'; they certainly feel like being tossed around in a rain-gorged river.

"Reborn, please stop winding Takeshi up; I have no desire to repair gouges in the floor of the dojo this week. I have better things to do. Takeshi-chan, put your shinai away and go and meditate. Your goal is to figure out why an  _Arcobaleno_  is baiting you, and how to shore up the weakness he's poking at." The newly christened - at least in his own head - River pouts at his father, and he makes a mental note to arrange to have one of the tutor stipends paid to the man because he was positively contributing, and had obviously been drilling his son in preparation for the boy going fully Active. "Tsunayoshi, come here and let me demonstrate the first of the kata for kenjutsu; Takeshi needs some time to think about why he keeps trying to wash the world away."

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto - Autumn Rain - still has the majority of his skills, and has picked up an aptitude for teaching those skills somewhere along the way, and he leaves him to train his son's new 'Sky' in the use of a blade in favour of exploring Namimori further and observing some of its other strange denizens. He's beginning to think that whatever the Seal did to his new student's Flames, it affected those others compatible with them in a strange sort of variation on Sky 'Attraction'; that as they condensed, they coaxed those that should have been theirs, into following suit so that Tsuna could 'keep' them.

He doesn't bother with the Mist veil this time; better to start to accustom the citizens of Namimori to his presence. And given that Fon was at least moderately well known, it shouldn't be as tricky as he'd assumed it would be. (There was some sort of Japanese custom, too, something about a child's first errand? He's already seen children that look as small as his inconveniently sized form out carrying bento and the like. Maybe this wouldn't be quite as bad as he'd expected?)

... he really should learn not to taunt Murphy; anything that could go wrong would go wrong, and this contract was already a cluster fuck thanks to Idiotsu and Timoteo. There was a teetering on active Lightning stalking him, and he really didn't want to start killing civilians without good reason. (At least the sheer  _normality_  of her Flames means that it isn't just a case of proximity to his new student causing the shift?) Telling Leon to behave, he jumps up onto the wall, and makes a pretence of acting his apparent age, which lures the girl - he raises an eyebrow; female Lightnings were rare - into closing in, and he turns his best innocent smile on her when she crouches down beside him.

"Are you on your first errand, ...?" the pause after 'errand' is clearly intended to be filled with his name, but he doesn't hand that out willy-nilly; instead he looks up at her with wide eyes and nods, playing into societal expectations.

"Hafta go and get some milk for Mama." Lightning crackles beneath her skin, so close, and it's so tempting to give them that last little bit of a boost towards an Active state. (Why is he resisting temptation? He knows several Skies who need a Lightning, and will treat the teen in front of him well, and if they didn't he'd beat them senseless; one of the reasons he'd taken up tutoring was the desire to change the wider Flame Mafia's behaviour, after all.) "Carry Reborn-chan to the market?" She picks him up, and he gives in, stroking his Flames over hers Activating them, and giving her a taste of the small portion of pipsqueak-Dino's Flames that he carries with him. Her eyes take on a greenish cast, and he smiles and snuggles down in her arms. The wider Mafia would assume his former student was fucking her, but pipsqueak-Dino was very not-straight, and the assumption would keep her safe, the same way that Bianchi used him sometimes. (And Nana did need some more milk; he'd used the remainder of it for his espresso that morning. This was just the icing on the cake.)

He slips some pocky into the girl's bag when she's not looking, and the shopkeeper shakes his head and smiles. He is careful to give him enough yen to cover the pocky, too, and jumps back up into the girl's - Haru; she'd introduced herself while they found the store - arms, and directed her back to Nana's house. He contemplates what else he needs to do before Tsuna escapes Tsuyoshi's exacting tuition; phoning pipsqueak-Dino and extracting an ETA was on the list, and he needed to check whether Verde had made a final decision.

The hair on the back of his neck prickles, and he curls into his ride, wrapping his Flames in close and tight and using them as an impromptu shield until the feeling fades. Haru's Flames aid him willingly enough, though he can tell she doesn't recognise or understand what she's doing. He'll have to investigate the antique store that they pass, and if that isn't the source of his unease, he'd spiral outwards until he found the threat or treasure that was setting him off.

Verde's waiting for him at Nana's table, scowling at a cup of black coffee. He jumps out of Haru's arms, who drifts into the kitchen with the worryingly apathetic mother of his student and puts the bottle of milk down in front of the Lightning Arcobaleno, who pours enough into his cup to make it almost as bone pale as the man himself. "You made me  _very_  curious, Renato. Where is my new test subject?"

"Training with his first Guardian's father at the moment." The cup stills on the way to the other Arcobaleno's mouth. "Asari no Yamamoto Takeshi's Flames are as unusual as his 'Sky's'. And Fon has been hiding a student from the rest of us, too, though it's possible that the boy in question has a bloodline gift and is still a Cloud of some sort; there's at least one more individual with ... unusual Flames in Namimori, and who is capable enough to help my new student refine his own into something the boy can use as a suppression-type weapon." Verde's hair is gaining that look that it does when he’s interested; it’s very  _expressive_ , and while enough hair gel can conceal it, the Lightning didn't bother very often. "I've also asked Dino Cavallone, Shamal and Bianchi to expedite their arrival in Japan, which should give you a competent medic to work with, and a Sky Flame User and someone with a bloodline gift to terrorise alongside young Tsuna."

"I've decided you  _don't_  need to get me a birthday gift this year." His lips twitch. Given the Lightning's brattiness when he thinks he's been forgotten that’s as good as an acceptance of the contract he’d offered him, and Verde hasn't even  _seen_  the Flames he is to investigate yet.


	5. Chapter 5

He and Verde drink two more cups of coffee in companionable silence before Tsuna returns, over the shoulder of his new Guardian, who looks a little sheepish. "Tou-san wore Tsuna out, Reborn-san, so I brought him home." He ignores the position of Takeshi's hand in favour of brushing his own Flames over his student. No serious injuries, just exhaustion. "Tou-san said that Tsuna should spend Thursday afternoon in the dojo; he's asked one of his sushi students to take over the restaurant, he's a registered tutor with Hibari-senpai's committee, and that's when we have sports."

"His bedroom is the messy one at the top of the stairs, Takeshi. Put him to bed and then come back downstairs _immediately_ ; I want you to demonstrate your Flames for my colleague." The not-Rain - River - pouts at him. "Asari no Yamamoto Takeshi." The teen's spine stiffens, and that was fascinating and useful that it worked for him as well as Tsuyoshi.

"Sky Attraction?" Verde's voice sounded amused. "I remember how much of a bitch in heat you were around Luce." He groaned at the memory of how bad he'd been.

"Not a Sky, but something like, yes. His declaration under the influence of one of my bullets was 'Kiss Tsuna with my Dying Will'. I'm suspect that Fon's student will have something similar as his 'regret' - as may the not-Sun I tripped over - and I do understand why his guardians might have a desire to despoil Tsunayoshi's innocence, but after tutoring Bianchi..."

"How high is her kill count at this point?"

"It depends on whether you're counting her accidental kills." His student's mother wanders out of the kitchen and places a plateful of biscotti between them. "Thank you, Nana. Has Haru-chan left?" Verde pulls a face, Flames recoiling and retreating and he raises an eyebrow.

"Haru-chan is helping me bake, Reborn-kun." The woman drifts off again, and he feels the Lightning across from him relax again.

"There's a reason I haven't taken the Vongola up on their Research Grants. Sawada invariably supervises them, and I hate that man's Flames." Lightning crackles across Verde's skin, and he resists the temptation to ask for details. "His shadow is his bastard, too. I was curious." The last is murmured in Italian, and he winces. Before he can ask for more details, Takeshi trips back down the stairs, a slightly guilty expression on his face, and his student is probably tucked into bed either naked or only wearing his boxers. He should tell him off, will if Tsuna's naked, but Verde's reminder of how bad he'd been around Luce held his tongue for now. "Sit down child and show me your Flames, and we'll not ask what state your 'Sky' is in right now."

"Maa, maa. I just made sure he'd be comfortable, Arcobaleno-san." Which could cover any number of minor sins, up to and including a spot of fellatio. "Tou-san didn't go easy on him, and I know how sore my muscles can be after he's spent some time beating a new kata into me." Still could be fellatio; he shakes his head and mentally blames Verde for bringing up memories of just how hot for Luce he'd been. "I'm still new at this, Tou-san showed me how before I woke my Flames up, but this is only the third time I've tried it. Don't let me destroy Sawada-san's furniture, please." Lightning Flames coat the table, and Takeshi cups his hands and his not-Rain Flames spill over them.

Verde makes a sound and pulls something out of his pocket and clicks his tongue as he uses it to examine the pooling Flames. "And your student's Flames are as unusual? You can put them away now, child."

"Call me Takeshi, please, Arcobaleno-san." He can almost see puppy-dog ears peeking out of the boy's hair.

Verde shakes his head. "Until I remember that you are, in fact, intended to be a long-term experiment alongside your 'Sky', better you're a 'child' in my head, Yamamoto Takeshi. I do not harm children, whereas grown mafioso make excellent victims for semi-lethal experiments."

"Speaking of which, his father - Autumn Rain - has promised to kill you if you cause him permanent physical or psychological injury, Verde. And he has a Muramasa blade that he's successful in corralling." Verde hisses. (He's not entirely sure that Shigure Kintoki is a Muramasa, but given the potted history he'd received from Tsuyoshi and the barked commands the man had given his son whilst they'd all been in the dojo about the necessity of self-control, it was a warning that might just register with Verde's occasionally obsessive brain.)

Takeshi rubs the back of his head as if that wasn't the first time he'd heard that his father had threatened people on his behalf. "Maa maa. Tou-san hasn't killed anyone for ages, but Shigure Kintoki's hungry, Verde-san. He's been eyeing the parents of my teammates sort of speculatively for the last few weeks."

"Noted." Verde's voice is dry, but the man had a curious look in his eyes, and he barely avoids facepalming because that bespoke a desire to investigate the blade that the not-Rain was so casually referring to as sentient. "What have they done to deserve their deaths, and would your father be willing to let me observe the w they die? Purely as a matter of scientific inquiry; the older Flame Weapons are so poorly researched."

"They're putting the weight of their children's admission to a good high school on my shoulders as the 'Baseball Ace'. But now I have a Sky, I need to practise my kenjutsu, and I won't have time. Tsuna's more important. But they're going to get angry, and that'll be the excuse Tou-san needs."

Verde scrawls something in one of his notebooks and then tears it out and hands it to the not-Rain. "Mmm. If he has enough self-control, have him phone me before he executes them; I'll pay him well for the knowledge. Now shoo; I have a baby Lightning to terrorise and some ~~scheming~~ planning to engage in, and you're distracting with your curious Flames." Takeshi laughs and takes the piece of paper, scampering out of the door, and he notes that even if the teen isn't carrying Shigure Kintoki, there's still a shinai over his shoulder and what looks like a concealed knife, and he's grateful for Tsuyoshi's preparedness; the more competent eyes watching out for his student, the more likely he'd achieve adulthood. "Not a Rain, but with much of a Rain's nature, I think."

"Instincts to challenge mine, a parent that would have been able to hold the pacifier if we hadn't already been trapped by the Man in the Iron Hat, raised with a knowledge of Flames, and knows that eventually, he'll inherit a Sword that ... hungers." He could see allowing Takeshi Yamamoto to inherit his crown, and there was part of him that looked forward to the day that the boy faced Squalo Superbi, wielding Shigure Kintoki and confidence in his skills. Even if it wasn't a battle for the Rain Ring during a scramble, it would be spectacular. He shakes himself again; if he'd had his adult body the humming anticipation in his veins would be arousal, but he wasn't, so it was merely frustrating. "Moving on -" because he desperately needed to, before the anger turned inward again, "- how are you intending to torment the baby Lightning I found? Bear in mind that I was planning to gift her to pipsqueak-Dino; so please try not to drive her insane."

“I haven’t driven anyone mad for months, Reborn. I just thought I’d test the training program I’ve been working on for the Family on her; she doesn’t have any of those inconvenient prejudices to work around, and I already know _that_ section of the program works.” He hums acknowledgment; he knew which program Verde meant, and she might end up with a few mental scars, but she’d be within shouting distance of sanity when he was done with her, because it was intended for the children and Verde neither killed nor seriously maimed those he considered ‘children’. “When are your other students arriving, and have you bothered summoning Skull?”

“He’ll turn up. The others - however long it takes pipsqueak-Dino to shake himself free; he finally has a private jet again, and Bianchi and Shamal will be with him.” Skull’s attachment to him was still a perpetual puzzle to him, but the Cloud Arcobaleno seemed to treat him as his Sky, especially with how well Aria had hidden herself away; only Viper had seen her in the last few years. “Neither of them travels commercial well.”

“Mhmm. Is Sawada’s wife as apathetic as she seems? I can’t get past the Flames he has her coated in; it’s a truly obnoxious way of claiming her, and completely unsubtle.” The woman in question had just flitted out of the kitchen again, this time carrying the components of a relatively elaborate European-style high tea, but Verde had asked the question in Italian at least.

“Worse. She’s operating on autopilot, but I have to give Idiotsu some credit even if I want to carve his eyes out and feed them to him; the Flames seem to be keeping her vaguely functional. Of course, he should have sought treatment for her, so it isn’t very much credit. She’s at least a good cook, and keeps my student fed, clothed and housed, even if all three have room for improvements.” Verde sucks his teeth.

“I’d already decided to establish myself here for the time being; perhaps I will upgrade what I’m looking for in terms of a suitable residence, and we’ll move your student and his Guardians in there, where I can properly observe them. Then she could be sent to a residential unit, perhaps in Switzerland. Somewhere with decent mental health care where she will be out of any danger; it’ll make your student easier to manage.” He allows his lips to curve into a smile; Verde had made his choice, at least subconsciously, and was now rationalising things aggressively.

"A sensible solution. But perhaps it should wait for us to get my former students here, and a few more Guardians so that Tsuna doesn't panic when we ... remove her to safety." He even has an idea of where to send Nana Sawada; in the meantime, Bianchi could help her get her poison cooking the rest of the way under control, and guard her against the assassins that would, inevitably, come for her son. "Haru-chan -"

The girl popped out of the kitchen, sparkling at the two of them, and Verde made an amused sound. "You didn't say she had a Mist secondary."

"Does it matter?"

"Not really; given the predispositions of some of the current generation, it's actually useful."

"- Haru-chan, do you have a personal tutor?"

"Why does Reborn-chan want to know? Reborn-chan's too young for a personal tutor, isn't he?"

"Reborn 'chan' is a troll, and a dwarf, Haru-chan. He's almost a hundred, and even has a PhD." He pouts at Verde for spoiling his game. "The question was serious; you need some tutoring in a rather specialist subject, and I need to know whether I have to kill someone to create a vacancy." She looks at his companion with wide eyes and he snorts.

"I thought I said not to break her, Verde."

"Haru-chan isn't broken, Reborn-chan. Haru-chan is just trying to decide which question to ask first, because Haru-chan wants to know everything, including where Reborn-chan got that adorable suit Reborn-chan's wearing and what Reborn-chan's PhD is in because Daddy will be curious."

"I think that learning how best to ask all of the possible questions is something we can work on, Haru-chan. It gets tricky when one is studying an experimental subject like Reborn- _chan_ ; he'll twist the answers to perfectly reasonable questions into pretzels, because he's much like a nogitsune at times. He's the subject of one of my PhDs." He blinks and promises himself that he'll go through the other Arcobaleno's published works and see if he can figure out which of the monographs he's the star of. "- and a clever and curious assistant will be ... useful." The girl sparkles at Verde again. "Perhaps we should go and discuss terms with your father; from your question, I assume he's an academic?"

"Daddy's a mathematician, desu." He almost regrets handing the girl over to Verde, but he has a student already, one whom he was under a Vindice-administered contract to teach, and who would come with six other victims for him to torment, like the not-Rain he could see crowning as his successor, and much chaos to look forward to. "He teaches in Kyoto at one of the big universities, but Haru-chan is in Namimori because Mama lived here and Midori is a good school without being bad for Haru-chan. If we're going to go and talk to Daddy, Desu, does Verde-chan want Haru-chan to carry him?"

Verde takes advantage of the girl's offer, and he realises he hasn't seen Kaiman yet; presumably, the Lightning has a hotel suite. He shakes his. head, and hops down from the table; he was curious as to what state his student was in, and he had several _former_ students to check on. Leon crawls down his arm as he heads up the stairs, and is already in his satellite phone form when he steps into his sleeping student's bedroom. Tsuna's well enough wrapped in blankets that he doesn't bother unwrapping him to see if he's nude, and there's a sleepy 'pronto' from Leon.

"Where are you, pipsqueak-Dino ...?"


	6. Chapter 6

He snorts in amusement when he finds the monograph based on his chaos shot; given the mathematics involved in it, he understood how Verde had gotten a ten thousand word scientific paper out of studying it. It had taken him years to crack the equations that let him use it, and he’d solved two Millenium Problems off the back of that work. Perhaps he’d taunt Verde into proofreading; he’d get far more entertainment out of him working through it than his standard editor.

His student stirs, and he was going to have to work on Tsuna’s physical stamina and endurance, because he’d become dependent on his Flames, and when deprived of them his student ended up exhausted enough to crash after what he considered relatively minor exercise. Hmm. Verde would have some of his Flame reactive toys with him; perhaps he could rig something up, like weights that responded to the use of the not-Sky Flames his student wielded so effortlessly. “Good. You’re awake; we need to have a discussion about training.”

“Hiiieee! Reborn, you startled me! What are you doing in here!” He grins and swings his legs over the side of his hammock, balancing effortlessly, daring his student to knock him out with his Flames. “And what have you attached that hammock to?!”

“I used Activation to cause the wooden support beams in this corner to grow hooks; there was still the _potential_ for growth. And I’m sleeping in here because all three of Timoteo’s _legitimate_ sons are dead, and I’m contracted to keep you alive until you have ascended to his throne, _and_ have an heir of your own. I’m bleeding him dry for the service, of course. You’ll have Takeshi at school now, and I suspect that the Hibari-boy is why you’ve survived so far; he seems the sort of Cloud to ‘play’ with any intruders into his territory, but at home, you need a guard.” He jumped down out of the hammock, and is pleased when his student reflexively slows his fall. Ha. Tsuna had claimed only partial mastery of his Flames, but apparently, he and Irie Shoichi had done a lot of work on figuring out uses for them. “Do you and Shoichi have any notes on your research, Tsuna?”

“Shoichi has them.” His student eyes him warily, and he resists the urge to smirk; he’s beginning to suspect that Tsuna and Shoichi have already partially bonded as ‘not-Sky’ and Guardian, and that that, and Irie Ayumi’s determined attempts to be a civilian were what was causing the boy’s Rejection symptoms. (He’d left his student’s room well trapped and gone out to explore a little, overnight, and Irie Shoichi was a nervous wreck in a familiar way, despite his somewhat unusual Flames; it was similar to a state that some Suns worked themselves into, and the doubling over in pain was probably an overgrowth of the bacteria that caused ulcers because he wasn’t using _enough_ of his Flames.) “I’ll get them from him on Saturday, after school. You promised -”

“I don’t need to, lucky-Tsuna. Ayumi and I know each other from a long time ago. She’s a very competent hitwoman; I thought she’d been killed, but instead, she’d gone to ground and gotten _domestic_.”

“Hiiieee! Irie-san is a _hitwoman_!”

“Mmm. I’m beginning to think this is an informal retirement community for us; I assume it’s because Primo settled in the area.” His student looks a little confused. “Primo’s given name was Giotto; his use name in his retirement was Ieyasu.”

“Um. Still doesn’t mean anything to me Reborn. Kaa-san didn’t know the Sawada family history, and HE wasn’t here to teach me. I don’t even know the names of my grandparents on the Sawada side.” Eyeballs, testicles, and kidneys. And then maybe he’d teach Tsuna how to cut a throat using Idiotsu as a demonstration dummy. It was all the man as useful for. Even _he_ knew that family was important to the Japanese! “And he moved Kaa-san here, so while I know as much of her family’s history as she can remember, she’s a bit uh, not there? You’ve said that Flames run in HIS side of the family. Did he do something to her with them?”

“She broke, lucky-Tsuna, and Idiotsu thought that he could put her back together again with Sky Flames. He should have sought treatment for her. Has she ever been more ‘with’ it in your memory?”

“Not that I remember?”

“Might be post-partum psychosis then; treatable, but not by Sky Flames. Once you’re acknowledged as Timoteo’s heir, you can get her sent somewhere outside of Japan where they can actually treat her, rather than just hide her away.” His student looked pensive. “But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, and off the subject of training. Given how quickly and reflexively you’re using your Flames -“ Tsuna looked a little panicked. “- you make gravity your plaything, Tsuna. Most Flame Users take years of work to achieve controllable effects like that. In the three days I’ve known you, you’ve pinned people down, avoided bullets, negated the speed of a falling object and reduced your personal gravity to allow you to keep up with your peers physically. The last of which is a problem; you’ve been stunting your muscle development.”

“You’re going somewhere with this, and I’m not going to like it, am I?”

He grins, and Leon shifts form into a blow-gun. "If you like it, at least in the first few weeks, I'm doing this wrong. We're going to resolve the issue of your diet, and work on your physical conditioning. Get dressed; you're running to Takesushi, and if you try to use your Flames, I'll shoot you with a dart. If you stop the darts, I'll shoot Takeshi with them."

"Hiiieee! I'm moving; I'm moving!"

His student scrambles into comfortable, albeit worn clothes, and he'll add a shopping expedition to the training program, and sprints out the door. He packs up Tsuna's school uniform and his homework and follows, making use of Leon to keep up with Tsuna. He only has to fire three darts at him; two hit to whines from his student, but the third misses just as Tsuna skids into the private entrance to Takesushi. He gives Tsuna that one; if it was a use of his Flames, it was incredibly subtle.

He goes to follow his student in, only to be stopped by a very casually dressed Tsuyoshi, holding a bowl and chopsticks. "I should feed you fugu for breakfast, Reborn."

"Sawada Nana has poison cooking. After training the Poison Scorpion, I refuse to allow someone with that innate ability around my food unless someone forces me to at gunpoint. And Tsuna and Takeshi deserve some supervised time as a reward for behaving; it's not like they'll get it at school with the Hibari-boy there." Tsuyoshi sighs and gestures him into the kitchen, to where Takeshi was already folded into seiza at a low table, eating a very traditional breakfast, and Tsuna was washing his hands.

"It's just as well I was expecting this, Reborn, and I enjoy feeding people good food almost as much as I enjoy swordplay." There's more than enough for all four of them, and with a far better dietary balance given the level of exercise he was planning to inflict on his student. "Do you need the toddler chopsticks?" The tone is teasing, and he sticks his tongue out at the retired Rain Assassin. "I probably even have some with a Leon-topper."

He twitches at that and holds out his hand. Tsuyoshi laughs and puts his own bowl and chopsticks down to dig in one of the drawers. "Thank you, Tsuyoshi." (They're a much better size for his hands, and he hates the necessity; he'd ask for a fork, but that'd just be humiliating, and he didn't do humiliation well.) "I brought your school uniform, Tsuna. We'll go over your homework while we eat, so slow down."

"But Hibari-senpai'll be mad if we're late."

"He's a prospective Guardian, Tsuna. I want him interested in you; it's why I've brought the smartest of your uniforms and why you're going to be _exactly_ on time."

"Maa, maa. Reborn-san, Hibari-senpai gets mean if he thinks you're breaking school rules -"

"I think that's the point, Takeshi-kun. And that Reborn wants to tempt his colleague out of his concealment, too, so he can join the little conspiracy he's planning."

"You spoil my fun, Tsuyoshi. Just for that, I'm not going to give you any warning before introducing you to my former students and the very pretty Sky who needs a competent Rain." He brushes the fragment of Dino's Flames he carries over the man own and is gratified when they demonstrate their compatibility; he hadn't lost his touch as a matchmaker.

"Tou-san, are you _blushing_?!" Mmmm. Maybe he should warn Romario, just to make sure nothing happened in public that the two men would squirm about later. Or perhaps he wouldn't; if pipsqueak-Dino didn't expect him to pull some sort of trick on him, he would deserve whatever teasing he got from his kohai and his kohai's guardians. "You are! You haven't even met the Sky yet, Tou-san, and yet you're blushing!"

"I carry tiny fragments of my students' Flames with me, Takeshi; I brushed my Sky student's fragment against your father's Flames. I carry them because they're still mine, and it means I can find them compatible Skies, or in young Dino's case, compatible Guardians. If I had to leave Tsuna behind for some reason and his Flames consented, I'd carry him with me, too." He smirked. "Apparently he and pipsqueak-Dino are compatible." Very, very compatible. Perhaps he'd be kind to Tsuyoshi and make sure they met in private, because Dino was going to be a blushing, awkward mess. Or he could just shoot Dino with a Dying Will bullet and see what amusing things he said under the influence of it, because he wasn't going to get to shoot Tsuna with them. "But back to your homework, boys. Let me check yours, too, Takeshi."

Neither homework sheet was fantastically well answered, but given they both had the same flaws, he pinched his nose and then swore. He’d thought he wouldn’t need to take over his student’s mundane education; Japanese schools were supposed to be excellent, damnit. He’d put his former students to work when they were present. Pipsqueak-Dino could cover English, Sicilian and Mafia Etiquette; Shamal general Science; Bianchi - despite her probable protests and wish to teach home economics - could cover World History and callisthenics, and when Skull showed up, he was sure his original student could figure out something fun to teach. That left him with beating the basics of mathematics into his students’ heads.

He breaks into Tsuyoshi’s rather amusing reverie by poking him with his chopsticks. “This about normal for Takeshi’s homework?”

Tsuyoshi takes the sheet and scans it. "Unfortunately, yes. Takeshi, take Tsuna upstairs and get dressed for school; neither of you need to hear us plotting this morning." Takeshi pouts at his father, and his lips quirk. "I know you, Takeshi; you can't help but respond differently to those I've marked for death. I've seen the way you're provoking your teammates. Upstairs." His student and his student's not-Rain disappear, Tsuna carrying the pile of uniform he'd pulled out of his Leon-made bag. "He can do better if he sits down and reads the supplementary textbooks he has upstairs, but the teachers at Nami-chuu are one more fuck up away from feeding Shigure Kintoki. The only reason I've refrained so far is I didn't feel like moving the restaurant again, which meant I had to gather enough evidence that Touma is willing to cover things up for me." He filed the name Touma away; he'd have to ask about him later in case he needed help concealing Idiotsu's death. It would be sloppy of him if he did, but he wasn't sure he was going to be able to resist the temptation of killing the man if he saw him at any point in the next six months or so. "But given the way Takeshi's favouring his arm, I think I'll take Himself out for a walk tonight."

"I should warn Verde then. He wants to observe Shigure Kintoki for Science!; he designed so many of the newer weapons we use as a society that he's perpetually curious about the older ones." The two boys come tumbling back down the stairs, and he clucks his tongue and jumps up onto one of the counters. "If I'm using the two of you as bait for the Hibari-boy, then you need to be more presentable than this. Stand still." Leon transforms in his hand, and he sets to work on both boys' clothes, tailoring them a touch, and sprucing things up. One had to obey a Cloud's rules with flair and elan to tempt them close. "I'm done with you Takeshi; go and get your weapons. If the Hibari-child is what I think he is, he'll respect you far more for wearing them."

"Tou-san?"

"Take His tantō and your practise shinai. Stab _anyone_ but Kyoya-kun with the tantō, and I will tan your hide. I'll excuse bruising."

“Hiiieee! Why are you all so cavalier about the idea of baiting Hibari-senpai?! And no stabbing or bruising _anyone_ , Takeshi!”

“If they call you Dame-Tsuna, he’ll be well within his rights, Tsuna. Better bruises than the alternatives; if you’d been transferred to the Academy in Italy, the way Timoteo wanted, your Guardians would be expected to kill to prove they were worthy of you and kill to keep their positions.”

“Hiiieee!”


	7. Chapter 7

He rides his student's shoulder to school, scolding Tsuna and Takeshi when they try to speed up; he's timed the route precisely and given what he's already observed nothing will attract the Hibari-boy's attention faster than two of the more interesting students toeing the precise edge of his rules while still obeying the spirit of them. Hence the modifications he'd made to their uniforms and the weapons he had his student's not-Rain carrying; he'd checked, and the Hibari-boy had quietly rewritten the rules to allow for weapons the student was genuinely proficient in to be carried. Presumably, so that no one would try to take his own weapons away, but even he could see that Takeshi met the required standards. (And if the Hibari-boy protested, all the better; first he'd get to see how Takeshi did against a non-swordsman, and then he'd get a chance to evaluate Tsuyoshi's skills when Fon's little demon went after the master.)

He spreads his Flames wide, a thin net intended to tell him if there were other Flame Actives nearby and recoiled from the overwhelming hash of input. A startling number of the delinquents lurking around the school had active Flames, and several of lucky-Tsuna's classmates were teetering on the edge of Activation. If they were at the Academy, the situation would make sense, but at a civilian middle school, it made his head hurt. He almost misses the presence of the Hibari-boy in the mass of lesser Flames, and he hisses as he realises what the positioning of the delinquents and their unrestrained Flames was intended to do. "Reborn?"

"I may have just carved off more than you can chew for you, lucky-Tsuna. Your prospective 'Cloud' is a gorgeously tricky creature, and this is going to be fun to watch." He jumps down off his student's shoulder and Leon shifts into a bo-staff sized for his form. If his student and his student's not-Rain didn't occupy the little demon, he'd need something he could knock him out with. "Enjoy."

"Hiiieee!"

"This will be fun. I've always wondered if I could fight Hibari-senpai to a standstill."

"Takeshi!"

"For bringing weapons to school, I will bite you to death!" The Hibari-boy drops out of the sky, tonfa already limed in an icy-haze and Takeshi draws his shinai as the rest of the students scatter - and are promptly herded into the school by the delinquents.

He prevents his student from trying to get between the two fighting teens with the bo-staff. "Don't interfere, lucky-Tsuna, or I shoot both of them with my bullets and see who pushes the limits of propriety furthest."

"But _Reborn_!"

"This is perfectly reasonable posturing between your Guardians, lucky-Tsuna. If they're both meant to sit in your 'Sky' they'll come out with little more than bruises and a new pecking order; if they're not compatible, that's when people end up dead at the Academy." His student goes pale, and he rides out the twitches in local gravity as Tsuna watches the two boys spar gleefully; both the tantō and the tonfa glisten with blood, and Takeshi's dropped his shinai, favouring his dominant arm but still holding the Hibari-boy off. The two of them end up in a stalemate, tonfa across Takeshi's throat and tantō to the Hibari-boy's stomach, blood beading around its blade as the two of them wait for each other to surrender. "See? They're enjoying themselves, lucky-Tsuna. And now they both deserve a reward."

"Hiiieee! No shooting them Reborn. If Takeshi kisses me in front of the whole school, I'll never live it down! The fight is bad enough, but at least everyone expects Hibari-senpai to bite someone to death every week!" He shoots them anyway; he only promised not to use the bullets on his student, and the result was likely to be funny. (And the students in the school had been herded into their classrooms by the delinquents and no one 'felt' like they were watching.)

"KISS TSUNA WITH MY DYING WILL!"  
"PET THE SMALL CARNIVORE WITH MY DYING WILL!"

He lets both boys have a brief taste of what they want, and then knocks them out with his bo-staff and smirks at his student's befuddled state. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it lucky-Tsuna? Now carry these two inside; you can use your Flames now." One of the delinquents - the former banchou, if he's not mistaken - meets them at the door and raises an impassive eyebrow at the state of the Hibari-boy.

"I'll summon an ambulance for the Chairman -" The taller teen lifts the Hibari-boy off his student's shoulder, apparently unsurprised that Tsuna was capable of lifting two boys older and taller than him.

"Or you could just ask me nicely, Kusakabe-kun." He lets the pacifier slip out from where he hides it, and the older teen's eyes fix on it in a way that suggests he knows what it and its colour mean. "Neither of them has anything seriously wrong with them; I'm a more than competent healer, even if it isn't my preferred profession. I just wanted them somewhere quiet before I did anything about their injuries."

"Then follow me." He adds competent Mists to the obvious Lightnings among the delinquents, because they step from the front entranceway of the school to a room at least two floors higher and with a significantly different aspect. The Kusakabe places his master - or rather 'Chairman', given the way that he'd referred to the Hibari-boy - on one of the couches, and removes the tonfa and a set of knives from their hiding places. "You may put the baseball-herbivore -" Kusakabe pinches his nose as if he realised what he'd just called Yamamoto, "- on the other couch, providing he isn't bleeding too hard, Sawada. If you're planning to use Sun Flames to heal them, would you mind waiting a few minutes while I send for our two committee members with that Flame; they could do with the technical demonstration, Reborn-sama."

"Um, Kusakabe-senpai, wouldn't it be better to heal Hibari-senpai in private? He'd be enraged by anyone seeing him like this, and I fully expect that I'm going to spend the next fortnight evading being bitten to death for seeing him injured and what he did under the influence of Reborn's bullets, but could we please keep from irritating him further?" The Kusakabe - he's seen enough of them to recognise the genotype in the former-banchou - looks thoughtful and taps something into a cell-phone.

"The two Suns will be here in fifteen minutes; I assume that's sufficient time for you to repair the knife wounds the Chairman has suffered?"

"Providing that the tantō doesn't carry the katana's curse, more than enough." He looks a question at his student, who throws his hands up in the air.

"Why are you looking at me like that! I didn't even know that Tsuyoshi-sensei's katana was cursed until you said something!"

"- if it does, well, I have a potential Sky here for him, so it's still fixable."

"Reborn!"

"Binding an element to a Sky is a perfectly legitimate way to deal with curses, lucky-Tsuna." His student buries his head in his hands, and he laughs and presses small hands to the not-Cloud's side. He finds himself tumbling into the frigid Flames, and that wasn't a bloodline-gift that Fon had been hiding from the rest of them; they had something of the quality of Cloud, but that was like saying that Tsuna's peculiar Flame had some properties of Sky Flames. They shone and glimmered like fractured ice, moved deceptively quickly and didn't fade away under his glare. The wound is already half-healed when he brings his attention to it, though it has the feel of the blade Tsuyoshi wielded, and he probes it cautiously before deciding that Shigure Kintoki _liked_ the Hibari-boy and wanted to keep him as a food source, which would make battles between the two Guardians entertainingly brutal - though probably not lethal - once Takeshi inherited the katana as well. "But not necessary this time. He'll be coming up in three, two, -" He ducks the swing, and jumps back onto Tsuna's shoulder.

"Chairman -" He tilts his head, curious, and oh, this Kusakabe is a very well trained and entirely sane Lightning; perhaps he'll have to point Verde at the teen to discover what was missing from the training back in Italy. "- one, you're unarmed, and it hasn't been reasonable for you to bite people to death literally since you were _three_ , and two, it's impolite to try and kill a healer who has just fixed the wounds you earned fighting with someone holding a portion of a tsukumogami blade. Your mother will be insufferable about this, and if you don't pretend to be a civil human being for the next ten minutes, _I will tell her everything_."

"Hn." The not-Cloud sits up, and his eyes flick between him, his student and his student's not-Rain as if deciding whether or not his Kusakabe was serious about his threat.

"Chairman. I put your spare uniform in your private bathroom; you look less than pristine at the moment, and you know how the school panics when you're ruffled." If it wouldn't cause him to laugh thinking about a pout on what was a teenage version of Fon, he'd call the boy's expression petulant, but he complies, vanishing through a door. Kusakabe pinches the bridge of his nose. "He's going to be insufferable in eleven minutes. Please get Yamamoto-kun healed and into class by then, and yourself off the premises, Reborn-sama." The former-banchou crosses to the door and opens it; two Sunny delinquents step in, and he shifts gears smoothly into teaching mode.

His student has a quiet nervous breakdown in the corner of the room while he teaches the delinquents the art of treating concussions and repairing bones with their Flames, both skills that they're likely to need around their 'Chairman', the effort leaving both delinquents exhausted. (Neither is particularly strong, and the stronger the Flame User, the stronger the healer working on them has to be; it's only his aid that allows them to work on Takeshi, who is as strong as his father, in his own way. Though not as able to conceal himself from the Sun so easily; his Flames seemed to shrink from enough sunshine, but the raw power required was still staggering.) It takes him eight minutes to have the 'River' rousing from his enforced nap, and he shoos both the delinquents back to class with promises of more lessons in the future - he suspects the ones he's given them will make them very popular among their fellow delinquents, which will only encourage them.

"Did I beat Hibari-senpai, Reborn?"

"Hiiieee! You nearly _killed_ each other, Takeshi! Don't do that again; my heart can't take it!"

"I'm fine, Tsuna. And I did enjoy my reward kiss -" His student hides his face in his palms again, bright red, and mumbles something, but he ignores Tsuna in favour of checking he's healed Takeshi correctly and a quick repair or three to his uniform. "- though maybe I can have the next kiss without a bullet, please?"

"You won't stop at just a kiss, Asari no Yamamoto Takeshi, so you'll have to wait until we've researched your Flames a little more, and take your carefully monitored 'rewards' as you get them." The 'River' pouts at him, but he doesn't fold. "Now back to class, brats. I have a colleague to hunt down." Both boys leave the room with alacrity, and he stretches both physically and with his Flames.

He's sure he can feel Fon on the edge of his senses, on the edge of combat-readiness, and he wonders if it's his presence, or that the Storm 'played' with his relative when he was in Namimori. Not that it mattered very much; he was looking forward to having a long conversation with one of his more elusive colleagues. He jumps out of the window just as his student's new 'Cloud' came raging back into the room, and he soars on a Leon-hang-glider. He heats the air, manufacturing his own thermals, and circles high over the school, reaching out with his Flames to see where the 'Eye of the Storm' was lurking; he finds him the equivalent of a block and a half from the school, crossing the grounds of a large compound that adjoins its grounds. He swoops down on him, and barely avoids the man's lotus dragon, and it's _on_ ; he's been itching for a fight for _days_. He responds with his chaos shot, and they have a glorious battle that leaves them both panting, flat on their backs. "So what are you doing in Japan, Renato?"

"Causing mayhem and chaos, and training idiot-Timoteo's newest choice of heir. Who has _very_ peculiar Flames; like those of the student you've been hiding from the rest of us, Fēng." The Storm hisses at the version of his name that the Triads normally use, and he considers that a fair retaliation for using his birth name.

"Of course I've been hiding my great-grandson; the Triads would _adore_ the chance to get their claws into him." He hums acknowledgement of that fact. "And trying to solve the puzzle of what happened to his Flames, without losing him to Verde's laboratory or bankrupting myself. I have some information if you have an offer to make?"

"How about safety from the Triads, from Verde and a Sky of his own?" Not that Verde would permanently harm the boy if he was one of Tsuna’s Guardians, but he wasn’t going to give up the negotiating advantage when Fon was in possession of information that he _wanted_.

"Kyōya is a 'Glacier'. One of my contacts had a very damaged manuscript, and the description matches. Apparently, there's a separate 'spectrum' of Flames, kin to our own, but different enough to be a puzzle."


	8. Chapter 8

He felt more justified in calling Takeshi a River now, but what would that make Tsuna? He rolled around a few ideas in his head but in the end, he decides to leave the decision for once they've done some more research into the unusual Flames; it's possible that Fon will return from the mission - funded from the discretionary account that he'd insisted on - with more information. He hopes that he will.

It's not the only reason to send him off to chase down an elusive contact and bribe him, though; Kyōya's trained, and yet another variation on the 'new' spectrum, and he wants to allow Verde time to investigate the 'Glacier' Flames before Fon kicks off about the Lightning's presence. Between having Tsuyoshi and Takeshi to compare and contrast - the Rain had confirmed that their line normally bred very true, with the same mixes in Flames in each generation - Dino and Tsuna, Kyōya's trained state and Fon's adamant insistence that the boy had gone Active as a Cloud initially, Verde would be in heaven, and probably wouldn't even think to ask where Fon was for several weeks.

He hops down on to the roof of his student's school and sits cross-legged, waiting patiently for the sleeping Glacier to rouse. Leon had obligingly produced a full Japanese-style tea service, and he's not sure he wants to know when his chameleon ate such an ornate set; he might feel the need to apologise to someone if he did. He's not disappointed by the teen’s relatively speedy response to his presence, and an amused portion of his brain notes that River and Glacier Flames are siblings; he can feel the leashed power under Kyōya's skin, and it has some of the taste of Takeshi's rambunctious Flames, but with their own crystalline 'twist'. "I believe we need to have a conversation, Hibari Kyōya."

"Hn." The boy leant forward, taking control of the making of the tea, working with quick, deft movements, even using an inversion of his Flames similar to one that he'd caught Fon making use of when they were both adults to heat the hot water, and he waits patiently, recognising the import of Kyōya being willing to make and serve him tea. "You are cursed like my ojiisan?"

"At the same time, and in the same place. It was supposed to save the world; whether the world was worth the price, I'm still questioning."

"How did you get the sword-carnivore's son to show his fangs, taiyo-ojiisan? I have been waiting for him to do so for four years." He's amused that Kyōya ignores his statement about the curse in favour of a question about Takeshi. 

"He has something like a Sky to preen for now, Kyōya. It makes him more willing to show off skills that do not involve a baseball bat. Speaking of which, the baseball team are about to become _very_ unhappy; they may need to be bitten to death, lest they try and chew on your small carnivore."

"The small carnivore has his own defences and his own acceptable rules. He will discipline them if they come for him." He raised an eyebrow at that; yes, he had seen Tsuna pin down those trying to bully Ayumi's son, but for a former Cloud to say that his student would discipline those who would try something on was _fascinating_. "It will be a treat to see him use his claws on the herd again. It has been a long while since I last saw him use them." Was Fon's great-grandson going to make him barter for the information he was hinting at? Given the boy had now settled into seiza, the answer was probably yes. "Who are the other carnivores that hunt with him, taiyo-ojiisan?"

"For now, just Takeshi Yamamoto, though I will be searching for more Guardians for him; Irie Ayumi is from your grandfather and I's world, and a Sky - or whatever lucky-Tsuna actually is - would be well served by her son's intelligence. There is also the older Sasawaga child -" Kyōya made a face, and his lips curve in amusement, "- there are ways to deal with his volume. If his problems are anything like those which Electric Suns are prone to developing, he either needs more outlets for his Flames, or to learn to still them. Beyond that, there are at least two more to find; presumedly with the same peculiar twist to their Flames as you, Tsuna and Takeshi have."

"Hn. There are no others like us within my wider territory. Ojiisan had heard rumours about a group with similar Flames living on one of the many islands in this archipelago, but they have proven impossible to find beyond the document he recovered several years ago in Okinawa." Less than seven percent of the islands were officially occupied, if he remembered correctly, so a hidden Flame user colony was entirely possible if a large enough group had taken refuge at some point in the past.

"I've sent him to follow up on those rumours with a larger budget. Baka-Timoteo and Idiotsu need to be made to pay for their idiocy and funding his search for Flame Users who understand how yours have been twisted is a good starting point; they're also funding one of my other colleague's research for good measure."

"Hn. Enough talking, taiyo-ojiisan. If you have sent ojiisan away, then I am without a sparring partner. Either fight me, or find me someone to bite, lest I find further excuses to pet the small carnivore now he is receptive." He barely resists the urge to facepalm; Kyōya's tone made it clear that the petting would rapidly become heavier than it had been under the bullet.

"You enjoyed sparring with Takeshi, yes?"

"The baby-sword-carnviore would be an acceptable playmate."

"I also have several of my former students en route to Namimori; I suspect they may also make for entertaining opponents. How is your poison resistance?"

"Adequate."

"Then you may find my first female student amusing. Please refrain from trying to bait the older male in the group into fighting; your grandfather will attempt to kill me if he infects you with one of his myriad of diseases, and you will need his aid if your poison resistance is insufficient. My one Sky student will be making an appearance too, and you may find his choice of weapon enlightening." The not-Cloud makes a curious noise. "He uses a whip, and is adept at pulling things out of people's hands with it; facing him would have benefits for your techniques." And at other ways of utilising his whip, but that wasn't something he was going to get into with Kyōya; Dino would only trust his bonded Guardians with that knowledge. The only reason he knew is that he'd walked in on some experimentation; he'd facepalmed and walked straight back out again, making some mental notes on what sorts of men would suit his Sky-student as Guardians, and that he'd need several female Guardians for appearances' sake. "What else do I need to barter for the information Idiotsu - Tsuna's father - failed to gather for me?"

"More training for my underlings, and more access to the small carnivore."

He makes a face, debating what would happen if he gave Kyōya what he wanted. "Supervised access to Tsuna. We need to do more research on your respective Flame manifestations before I let any of you go too far with each other. I have no need of discovering the hard way that either of you are as lethal to a partner as the Poison Scorpion is; her accidental kill rate was horrific for a few months."

Kyōya made a face of his own. "The small carnivore and I have more control than _that_."

"You may have more control, but whether Takeshi and Tsuna do is an entirely different matter. Tsuna's 'River' is impulsive and working on his self-control, and when I first shot him, he had managed to undo Tsuna's zip and would have done more if I hadn't knocked him out. And his Flames cut deep slices into solid tarmac while he did so."

"... I'm going to bite him to death."

"And that's different from what you planned before I said anything?"

"There was less immediacy to the desire before."

"I'm sure his father would be happy to supervise another round of sparring after school today. And they have a dojo suitable for Flame combat." Kyōya perks up again and he makes a mental note to check in with Tsuyoshi to see how their sparring match goes, and whether they fought in the same way without their not-Sky there to preen for. It would be an amusing test of their dynamics and give him some privacy to work with Tsuna on his control issues. If he was going to have an entertaining time training him then Tsuna needed to be able to _choose_ when his subconscious got to control what his Flames did.

"Hn. What will it take to get you to fight me taiyo-ojiisan?"

"I don't fight; I perform hits, and if you _know_ we're engaged in combat then I've already failed. One of my primary tasks is to teach Tsuna to survive no matter who is trying to kill him." Kyōya tilts his head and he has an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach as the boy's killing intent spikes above and beyond the level he'd expect a grown mafioso to exert in a life or death situation.

"The small carnivore already knows how to survive people trying to kill him. His disposal method is _elegant_." The Glacier had to be deliberately teasing him at this point, and he points Leon at the boy.

"Stop taunting me, Hibari Kyōya."

" _Make me_."


	9. Chapter 9

"Next time you plan to send Kasumi's demon son over to fight with Takeshi, some warning would be nice, Reborn. He's getting skilled enough at concealing himself that I think he scared six months off my life. And before you protest, when I challenged him, he said you'd sent him."

"Technically, yes." Leon once again shifts into the tea service, and he ignores Tsuyoshi's 'what the fuck' expression, hoping that it was his chameleon's transformation, not the fact that the man had recognised the set that was causing the consternation; he still hadn't lived down the time his companion had eaten one of Xanxus's prototype X-guns. The - at the time - baby Wrath had actually managed to singe his fedora in his Rage, and baka-Timoteo had frowned at him when he'd offered to spank the brat's butt. "Though there was intended to be the implication that he should check with you first, politely, before trying to bite either of you to death."

"Hibari Kyōya is a remarkably simple creature at times, and at others, he will ruthlessly exploit any loophole he's offered. It's best to be explicit when giving him instructions, or tell his Kusakabe what needs to be done." Leon had consumed enough tea over the years to explain why the pot of the set was already full and for its contents to probably be safe, but he debates pouring out the contents and asking Tsuyoshi for actual supplies to be certain. (He didn't think he'd annoyed his companion that much, but the little chameleon could be as chaotic as he was sometimes, and they'd both spent too much time around Bianchi.) "Are you going to glare at me if I request your 'Leon' revert back to being a chameleon? I have a perfectly serviceable pot and tea bowls, and I'm not sure I want to know why I feel like I should recognise the set he's uh, recreated."

"Not at all." Tsuyoshi stands and retrieves a workaday set from one of the cupboards in the kitchen and fills an electric kettle, and he coaxes his companion into transforming back to his base state with one of the treats he keeps concealed about his person. Leon's just settled back onto his fedora when the swordsman returns to the table. "How did the two of them fair in their sparring?"

"Beat the shit out of each other, and they're now asleep courtesy of a fairly heavy dose of Rain Flames. Kyōya resorted to his teeth, and Takeshi decided that he was going to kiss him as a distraction to get himself's tantō to Kyōya's throat. I decided not to see how the two of them would get out of that position." He snickers and the Rain glares at him. "What's so funny?"

"Kyōya's Dying Will is not far off Takeshi's, though he chose 'pet the small carnivore' rather than 'kiss Tsuna'. The two of them will need to come to some sort of accommodation in the next few weeks."

"Given that the wounds from the tantō healed almost as soon as I'd knocked them out, and they only normally heal so fast for one of the people Shigure Kintoki would like to keep. The few cuts I've given Takeshi during 'battle' heal like that, and when I taught Eiko self-defence, cuts from that tantō stung like a whip strike." He shakes his head and makes a tick on his mental 'appropriate for Dino checklist'; at this rate, he wasn’t going to need to manipulate both of them to ensure that they fell into harmony together. "Do you expect his other Guardians to want young Tsunayoshi in the same way as my son and Kasumi's want their 'not-Sky'?"

“Oh probably. A harem isn't beyond the realms of possibility."

"Given the way Takeshi and Kyōya were sparring, I suspect it'll be more 'equal' than a classical harem." He nods his head, acknowledging the riposte, and the swordsman smiles, and he wonders just how much influence a Sword as old and as powerful as Shigure Kintoki had on the man's disposition. "Care to join me while I do a little cleanup? I've been hearing rumours about a new yakuza group trying to expand into the area, and Kyōya confirmed their presence and said that Himself could have them; I should be able to mix a few civilian deaths into the whole, and the police will dismiss the deaths with minimal extra effort."

"Has there already been repercussions from Takeshi's declaration he won't be playing baseball anymore?"

"Mhmm. Several of the fathers had the effrontery to make a fuss this afternoon, not long before Kyōya arrived, and my boy was more than a little bit depressed until I made him practise his kata. Shigure Kintoki and I are in full agreement that there needs to be a reckoning." The sword rattles in its saya as if in confirmation of the fact. "I've already warned Verde; he's promised to bring one of his drones over to observe Himself in a combat situation."

The two of them drink tea in companionable silence, and Leon crawls back down off his fedora to curl affectionately around his neck; the private quarters of the restaurant are suspiciously silent, and he reaches out with his Flames to test his theory. There are enough Rain Flames woven into the insulating hangings on the walls to put an elephant - or an unwelcome stranger - to sleep permanently, and it's a fascinating off use label for the Flame. He says as much and Tsuyoshi smiles, a little sadly. "Eiko thought of it, to help Takeshi sleep when he was tiny. I didn't think it would work, but she was insistent." There's an edge of melancholy to the swordsman's voice and Flames, and if only for Tsuyoshi's sake he hopes his Sky-student will appear sooner rather than later. With Takeshi drifting ever closer to Tsuna, he didn't want to see the man slip the way some Rains did when they came unanchored. Fortunately, they're interrupted by Verde before Tsuyoshi can sink any further, and the Lightning's hair - straight out in typical mad scientist fashion - bespoke manic glee at everything he/d dumped on him in the last twenty-four hours.

"One drone for observations. Can I take a few measurements from your Sword beforehand, for reference?" Tsuyoshi lays Shigure Kintoki on the table and makes a gesture as if to say 'sate your curiosity'.

"You may want to refrain from physical touching Him yourself, though; He doesn't like your curse."

"Family Lore?"

"We had an Arcobaleno several generations back. There was a conflict between the pacifier and Shigure Kintoki that left the Arcobaleno unable to wield either Shigure Kintoki or the tantō, and two family members dead trying to kill the Administrator for cursing the Family Heir."

"They found him?!" Verde has the same wide-eyed look that he's sure he has to be wearing, too. They've been looking for the Man in the Iron Hat for close to eighty years; he'd had to watch multiple potential Skies die, and his curse had forced Daniela to chose another to sire her utterly unworthy heir, and he wanted to slaughter him even more brutally than he wished to slaughter Idiotsu and baka-Timoteo.

"The Family Archives are in one of the climate controlled storage spaces in the Hibari compound; I'll see if can retrieve the relevant ones at some point over the next few weeks." The man glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. "But not now. Now I have some yakuza to frame and slaughter and a ritual suicide to 'oversee'. What do I need to do to activate your drone, Verde, and will you be accompanying me, Reborn?" He answers the question by picking up the drone and jumping up onto the Rain's shoulder.

"Reborn can turn it on; Sun Flames will work as well as anything, and I'll stay here and watch over the boys. And yes, Reborn, I have a monitor on Tsunayoshi's house already; Kaiman clamped it to Idiotsu's entirely inadequate security system for me. Your student's casual control over gravity is fascinating; did you know he uses it in his sleep?"

"I'm assuming you can fire an entirely normal range of bullets from your Leon-gun, Reborn? Would you be willing to either execute two of the parents I'm after for me, to frame the yakuza, or loan me, Leon, long enough? Neither of them are particularly 'good' people." He had failed to warn Tsuyoshi about Kyōya; two more bodies on his heap, especially ones that had imperilled one of his student's Guardians was of negligible price to pay to stay in the Rain's good books over that issue.

"My pleasure." He shifts the drone into his off hand, and anchors himself firmly on Tsuyoshi's shoulder. The Rain slings his sword and saya over his other shoulder, and then his senses go all fuzzy as more cloth-bound Rain Flames take effect and Tsuyoshi almost vanishes from his perceptions. That was very much an assassin's trick, and it takes him a moment to reorient himself. "No experiments on the boys, Verde."

"Pfft. I've got more than enough material to process without poking them this evening." The Lightning's animal companion emerged from one of the sleeves of his white coat, and he eyed Kaiman warily. After a lifetime of Leon's antics, he had a healthy respect for the companion animals' skills, and wondered if Verde had ever investigated their origins; they'd been sitting on their chests alongside the pacifiers when they'd woken in the aftermath of the Fated Day. The alligator shrank further, rather than growing in size, and curled a tail around the bottom of the tablet Verde leant against him and he wonders if changing size was Kaiman's only skill set. "Shoo. I want to see what differences being fed makes to Shigure Kintoki."

"Going, going." Tsuyoshi laughs and heads for the door, and his stomach sinks as Leon shifts, and he lets go of Tsuyoshi's hair, trusting that he'll be able to keep his balance in a bid to intercept the bratty lizard before he tried to eat either Shigure Kintoki, some of Tsuyoshi's clothing or the drone. He spends the next half an hour - once they're outside and he's launched the drone - intercepting continued attempts by Leon to get a taste of Shigure Kintoki in-between executing the two parents that Tsuyoshi indicated. (Neither was in bed yet and killing them was merely a matter of pressing his Leon gun to the base of their skull and squeezing the trigger almost before they realised he was there.) Tsuyoshi thanks him, and then he gets to watch the man performing an elegant dance of death, carving his way through the minor yakuza; he whistles appreciatively as Tsuyoshi actually deflects bullets off his blade without shattering it, and there's a delightfully bloody mess left behind when he's done. He helps the man loot the bodies; they confiscate all of the ammunition but leave the handguns. Leon licks one of them, tongue down the barrel, and if the police check the weapon later it's rifling will match that of Leon's during the two executions. Then he has to coax Leon away from Shigure Kintoki again; his chameleon was intent on gumming on the weapon's tsuba and saya.

He feeds him the bullets one by one as the two of them meander back to the restaurant, and find Verde and Kaiman asleep tucked under the edge of the kotatsu in the upstairs living area. Tsuyoshi pulls a camera off the shelf and snaps a picture he'll have to steal a copy of later; Verde cuddling Kaiman was far too cute. "Should we wake him?"

"If his presence doesn't bother you, let him sleep; he's prone to insomnia and a sort of wild mania and for him to have slept through us returning means he feels safe."

Tsuyoshi shakes his head and smiles. "Anyone would think you're his Sky."

He splutters, and Tsuyoshi lifts him off his shoulder, but doesn't put him down; instead, he's carried through into the bathroom, set up in the traditional style, and Tsuyoshi nudges the cover off the furo to reveal steaming water. "Any qualms about joining me for a soak, Reborn?" He shakes his head and Tsuyoshi puts him down.

Once they've sponged off the blood, gunpowder residue and other evidence of their evening's activity, they settle into the tub - he makes another mental tick on his checklist of Tsuyoshi's suitability for Dino - and sit in quiet companionship. "Want another taste of my sky-student's Flames Tsuyoshi?" The man nods slightly, and he 'unwraps' the tiny shard, feeding it to the point where it almost feels like pipsqueak-Dino was in the furo with them. "He's very much in the vein of an Eastern Sky - a core of steel clothed in silk - and very invested in restoring his Family and keeping his own safe. His only Guardian at the moment is in his mid-thirties with middling reserves, to his - my student's - early-twenties, but he's free enough with his Flames that Romario runs circles around the youngest of Don Vongola's Guardians, and has been known to join Dino in sparring with one of the saner Varia members." Tsuyoshi makes a sleepy, interested sound, and he grins, and hops out of the furo, wrapping himself in a towel; he can maintain the sliver of Dino's Flames at full strength without being in the same room, and giving the swordsman some privacy would only help him make his decision. "I'll join Verde and sleep under the kotatsu, Tsuyoshi. See you in the morning."


	10. Chapter 10

When they wake Kyōya and Takeshi both squeak and jump away from each other, and he and Tsuyoshi laugh at the two of them (he suspected that both boys would vigorously deny the squeaks, but he considers the fact they don't immediately spring for each other's throats again a good sign; it means they're working things out). They're also bouncy and energetic, and he tilts his head and  _looks_  at their Flames, and finds slivers of Tsuyoshi's Flames being absorbed into both boys' systems in a way he's only seen before when pipsqueak-Dino had been pressing his Flames on Romario too fast for his Sun to absorb. In the end, he takes them for a run, circling around the neighbourhood until they arrive at his student's current place of residence. He sends them ahead of him with a stern injunction not to remove or unzip any of Tsuna's clothing, and drifts into the kitchen to check on Nana Sawada. She's cooking, and he raises an eyebrow as he realises that she's actually using Poison Cooking subtly and effectively to contribute to the fermentation of the food she's working on. That was something Bianchi hadn't figured out, but in fairness, there was less fermentation involved in the average Italian recipe.

"What would make you happier, Nana?"

"Ara, you startled me, Reborn-chan. Seeing Tsu-kun thrive is enough; I've given up on my Iemitsu-koi coming home again. Work keeps him so busy!" He sighs in relief; if she had genuinely reached that level of 'resignation' to Idiotsu's absence, she probably wouldn't break irrevocably when he and Tsuna executed the idiot. "Do you want some breakfast, Reborn-chan?"

"One of my colleagues is in town, Nana, and I ate breakfast with him. You might want to make a second bento for Tsuna, though; Hibari Kyōya has given us permission to make use of one of the labs before school so I can go over some of the science experiments that his teacher hasn't demonstrated very well."

"Hiiieee!"

"I need to go and stage an intervention, Nana. Tsuna's friends are being a bit rambunctious today."

"Ara. It's so good that Tsu-kun has friends willing to help him get up early!" He jumps down off the kitchen table and bounces up the stairs, contemplating what he would discover when he opens Tsuna's bedroom door. Would they have obeyed his limitations? They'd definitely surprised his student and he'd need to work on lucky-Tsuna's startle reflex; if he could weaponise that 'Hiiieee' ...

Kyōya and Takeshi are wrapped around Tsuna, Kyōya behind his student, hands somewhere out of sight and Takeshi had Tsuna pinned against Kyōya and was kissing his student breathless. Tsuna definitely wasn't complaining about this; his Flames were curling around his own, and glacial ice was busy carving itself a home in his student's soul in much the same way as Takeshi's 'River' had. "Hands and Tsuna where I can see them, please, boys. I know you want to go further, but you have a lot of hoops to jump through first."

"But I was enjoying that, Reborn!"

"And don't you think that's a little odd, lucky-Tsuna? You were blushing furiously at the idea of Takeshi being interested in you less than a week ago." Tsuna's head pops up from where he was pinned beneath Takeshi, pushing at the 'River's' shoulders and he suspects the wriggling wasn't doing anything for the two Guardians' frustrations. Leon shifts in his hands, forming himself into a Bō-staff as he realises that Fon's grandson was still fondling his student. "Kyōya, let me see your hands, now, or I will make Tsuna verbalise what you're doing to him." He sees the moment that the teen tries to decide between continuing and complying, and he sighs and whacks the Glacier just as Tsuna makes another 'Hiiieee'.

"Kyōya,  _ask_  before trying to pet me  _there_!" He raises an eyebrow.

"Kyōya-senpai's mean not to let me help!"

" _Takeshi_."

"Shower, Tsuna. I need to have a discussion with your senior pair of Guardians, and then we're going to take bento to school and blow up one of Kyōya's labs."

"Hiiieee!"

"Taiyo-ojiisan -" Tsuna scrambles out from between Takeshi and Kyōya and grabs a change of clothes, and oh, he was going to have to acquire lucky-Tsuna some more clothes, including appropriate night clothes; he'd been asleep in just a pair of boxers, and from the looks of things he'd been taken thorough advantage of. He waits for his student to leave the room before he turns back to the vibrating River and Glacier who were still perched on his student's bed.

"You didn't think you were getting to molest lucky-Tsuna without cost, Kyōya? You've allowed the teaching standards at Nami-chuu to drift appalling low and I will have my work cut out to deal with the fact that your small carnivore has barely been taught over the last few years." Kyōya stopped vibrating abruptly, tōnfa sliding into his hands.

"I will  _bite them to death_."

"Maa, maa. Reborn-sensei has a plan or he wouldn't be baiting you, senpai. And you did make Nami-chuu much safer physically; there's not been a single sexual assault in the last three years." The tōnfa vanish again with a flicker of yet another strange Flame and he blinks like he has sand in his eyes. "But you have to admit that Nezu-sensei isn't very inspirational or competent."

"Hn."

"No matter how tempting it is to bite them to death, Kyōya, please restrain yourself. If you kill or hospitalise them and their posts are publically advertised, then there are risks to your 'Sky' -"

"The small carnivore isn't a Sky. Ojiisan introduced me to two, and they feel completely different."

"Unless the document Fon found has a name for his Flame-type, Kyōya, Sky will have to do for now, as he is both able to bond with Guardians and has something like Sky Attraction to deal with. And as I was saying, there are risks to your Sky from infiltrators of both the influence and assassinate varieties, so unless you want to deal with Tsuna having bodyguards ..."

"Hn. Will get otousan to bring up the school's inspection date. Should terrify the teachers into teaching better." His student slinks back into his bedroom, looking even fluffier than normal and dressed in the same uniform he'd tailored. "Come here, small carnivore. You need grooming."

"Hiiieee, senpai -" Kyōya crosses the room and tugs his student over to his desk chair and pushing him down into it, before working his fingers into Tsuna's mess of fluffy hair and he blinks again, his eyes feeling gritty - did a Glacier have an illusionary aspect, or did Kyōya have a secondary Flame? There was now an armband around his student's arm, red and silver to Kyōya's red and gold. "No, no, no, I can't, senpai!"

"You already discipline the herd, Tsunayoshi."

"You  _know_  about that?! Hiiieee!"

"Maa, maa, Tsuna. People who try to bully you or Irie-kun end up with muscle aches and fatigue and not trying to do it again; Kyōya-senpai and I just put the pieces together. Why didn't you use that on Nezu-sensei?"

"Because -" his student fumbles his words, "- because I thought he was being honest, that I was at least a bit dame, and he never tried anything  _physical_." There are snarls from both of his student's Guardians, and he raises a hand.

"Kyōya, what do I need to do to withdraw Tsuna from the majority of his classes  _discreetly_? My other former students will be helping tutor him, but I know better than to isolate him from his peers before they  _stop_  being his peers."

"Hiiieee -"

"Hn. I will bring the paperwork to Takesushi this evening. Your mother makes my skin crawl, small carnivore."

"Kaa-san isn't that bad, Kyōya-senpai."

"Your gaijin father is, though, carnivore. If he enters my territory -"

"- then he's  _my_  prey, Kyōya-senpai." His student's eyes are molten, lava red, and he feels like he weighs three times what he does normally. "Reborn told me what he did to me, and he  _broke_  Kaa-san. If any of us get to kill him, I do, and I get to try Shoichi's newest suggestion for a method, too." That leaves him intensely curious, especially since Kyōya shivers appreciatively at that comment. The boy was such a very classic 'Cloud' to be turned on by his 'Sky' threatening someone.

“Only if you get to him first, lucky-Tsuna." His student  _looks_  at him and he feels an odd pull on his own Flames. It doesn't feel like a Sky trying to yank him into Harmony, but he still coaxes Leon into shifting into a bō-staff which he whacks Tsuna with. Or would have if one of the Glacier's tonfas hadn't intercepted the blow. "There are others with earlier claims to Idiotsu's death. Now, there should be bento waiting for you downstairs, lucky-Tsuna, and we're going to spend sometime in the science labs before school."

All three boys traipse down the stairs, and his student takes the pile of four bento from Nana with a somewhat wary expression. "Are you having a good day, Kaa-san?"

"Better than yesterday, Tsu-kun. I worked out my annoyance making fresh kimchi; there's some in all of the bento, and I'm going to go and see if i can get some more ingredients from the grocery so I can stock the fridge. I remember what it was like when o-nee-san was training -"

 _O-nee-san?_  He shook his head; from what his student had said, there was little value in trying to interrogate Nana, but he was still intensely curious, and would have to set Bianchi on trying to reconstruct her history if only so lucky-Tsuna could know that side of his family; the rant from his student about not knowing his own history had laid bare an obvious craving for more information. "Thank you, Nana-chan -" the diminutive suffix making the woman blush, "- we'll see you after school. Maybe we could have katsudon for dinner?" She smiles and nods, and Kyoya and Takeshi both go to take a bento from Tsuna's pile, but he shakes his head, and sets off at pace and doesn't stop until they're in a small park, not very far away from Nami-chuu.

"We should carry our own bento, Tsuna."

"I need to check that she's right about being in a better mood first, Takeshi-kun. Kaa-san's cooking can get a bit odd when she's stressed, and changes in her routine stress her and well, everything's changed this week." His student unties the top bento and checks each component carefully, inspecting colour, texture and smell, and that was going to make poisons training so much simpler. "You're safe. She must be happy about the changes."

Takeshi leans over his student and dips a finger into the open container of kimchee, and tastes it, his eyebrows rising in disbelief. "Your Kaa-san said she'd made this fresh?! It tastes like the really good stuff dad chases me around the dojo for getting into. I bet he'd buy it from her if she was willing to sell it. He's almost as vicious about guarding it as he is about the fatty tuna."

Kyōya dips his own finger into the kimchee, and he sees the Glacier's eyebrow rise. "Acceptable." The way his student beams says that that was to be considered high praise from Kyōya.

"See, even Kyōya-senpai thinks it's good and he's notoriously picky about his food, Tsuna." Takeshi grins and picks up one of the bento. "Now what were you planning to teach us Reborn-san?"

"I was going to start with human anatomy, Takeshi. It's far easier to assassinate someone or seduce them if you know where the physical weak spots are."

"But you said we were going to blow something up, sensei?"

"True. Hmm. While I could demonstrate the effect of an explosion on the human body, I suppose we could get started with thermite and ice; it'll be a useful experiment for a number of reasons."

"Hn."

"Hiiieee. Reborn, why do we need to know  _any_  of this?"

"Because baka-Timoteo expects it, lucky-Tsuna, and it's always useful to have something shiny to distract him with. And knowing I'm teaching you human anatomy to aid in seduction will give Idiotsu an aneurysm, though his designated Sun likely won't let it kill him." His student looked thoughtful.

"... what sort of pictures do you need to give him an aneurysm?"

"We can go into that later, lucky-Tsuna; they'll need to be carefully posed to both horrify him and  _not_  break Donna Daniela's rules." He wondered if his student or one of his student's new Guardians would pick up on his affection for his Daniela. He missed her and Tsuna and Xanxus both made his heart ache, albeit in different ways; where had baka-Timoteo gone so wrong? Three heirs dead and three crippled in different ways.

"Donna Daniela?" The implicit question comes from Takeshi, and he supposes it makes sense; Autumn Rain had operated in the West enough to have learned the names of the Vongola Dons.

"Your father probably knew of her as Ottava, Takeshi; Daniela was her private name. Baka-Timoteo used the last favour I owed her, a sentimental one I never expected to have used to have me come to Japan."

"Ah."

"Speaking of Daniela, I should ask him to send me the set of Rings she left me in her Will; that way, we'll be able to see if they're compatible with your Flames. If they aren't, baka-Timoteo has a significant problem to deal with, but he can sweat about that when we get round to telling him about it." He prods Leon to shift forms and grins wickedly when he assumes the form of a cattle-prod. "School, lucky-Tsuna."

"Hiiieee! I think I need to call you demon-Reborn." He grins, but the new nickname - welcome - doesn't stop him cranking up the cattle-prod. "Moving, moving!


	11. Chapter 11

_Fuck._  Tsuyoshi hadn't been joking when he'd said that Ayumi Irie thought that fire was the solution to any reminder about her former life. Fortunately, his suit was fire and flame-resistant, but she was very determined, and he'd been forced to drop and roll to avoid losing his curly sideburns. Leon's laughter from Ayumi's hand didn't help his mood. Perhaps he shouldn't have tried to force her hand, but in his defence, he'd been more distracted than he should have been, and counting on their former good relationship to allow him to start the conversation about her son's Flame rejection. "I know I can't kill you, Renato Sinclair, but I can  _try_." Sun Flames - not as strong as his, but close - lick along the fibres of his suit, pushing the individual molecules to vibrate more and more vigorously and he whistles appreciatively even as he tries to douse the rising heat.

"You do realise that your intransigent rejection of Flames and the possibility of Shoichi having them is killing him, Ayumi? His stomach issues and his anxiety are both symptoms of Sun Flame  _poisoning_. Add in the fact he's been orbiting a Vongola heir for the past ten years, and you were never going to keep him out of our world." He ducks an actual fireball, superheated air that knocks his fedora from his head and singes his hair. "Don't make me kill you Ayumi, because if I do, I'll take your children and turn them into the sort of mafioso you  _hate_. Play nicely and I'll keep their hands far cleaner than yours ever were."

"They're my babies, Renato. The reason I walked away. They're mine, and I'd give them the sun and moon and  _stars_ "

"Then give Shoichi his -" he hesitates, and decides that the common terminology will do, "- Sky, Ayumi. He's going to be dead or in desperate need of a stomach transplant in a decade if you keep doing this to him." The woman freezes and he presses his advantage, ready to duck another fireball. "He's picked himself a Sky, Ayumi; stop trying to protect him from his choices. Isn't allowing your kids to learn from their mistakes what Japanese parenting encourages? Not that I think that choosing my student would be a mistake, but I'm already biased."

" _I'm_  causing his stomach issues?!"

"You pour your Sun Flames into him, wanting to achieve his potential without pulling on his own Flames, and the helicobacter pylori have taken advantage of it to colonise his system."

" _You_  finally trained as a healer, Renato? Did Trident Shamal refuse to heal you of something until you'd sat through his lectures?"

"You sound so disbelieving, Ayumi. It makes assassination so much simpler when you know exactly how to turn someone's body on them."

“That sounds more like the Renato I remember." She tilted her head. and looked at him. "How did a Vongola Heir end up in Namimori for my Sho-chan to fix on, anyway? They're supposed to be 'home' in Sicily, living the high life, not slumming it in a Japanese back water. I ran a long way to raise my children. And for that matter, how did I not notice a Sky that strong in town?"

"That's a long story that I apparently don't have all of the pieces of myself. Let's just say that Idiotsu - Sawada Iemitsu, now running the CEDEF - and baka-Timoteo have much to answer for, and I plan to feed them their eyes and various other body organs in retaliation for everything that's happened so far. The Sky is not exactly a Sky; they Sealed him at  _five_."

"Sawada - oh, Shoichi's friend from kindergarten."

"Mhmmm. Apparently Shoichi's been helping lucky-Tsuna to figure out his Flames. From scratch, with none of the lore, as I assume you didn't teach Shoichi any of it? Not that most of it would apply to lucky-Tsuna, not after how his Flames have warped. You raised a bright kid, Ayumi, who has the potential to rival Verde for the developments he'll make in Flame Science."

"I wanted something more than that for him."

"Lucky-Tsuna will give his Guardians the world, and he already protects Shoichi from his bullies. He actually tried to order me not to pull Shoichi into our world, Ayumi."

"Kaa-chan? We only had a half day today, so I thought I'd work in my lab if that's okay?" The voice, presumedly Shoichi's comes from the front of the house, and he sees momentary panic in Ayumi's eyes.

" _Fuck_. My legal name is Tomoko and that's the name Shoichi knows, Renato, and if you get my son killed or seriously injured and I will make killing you my single goal in life.  _Understood?_." The words are hissed in a low, threatening undertone, and he smiles at her, his victory implicit in her words. "I'm in the back garden, Sho-chan; an old colleague and I need to have a conversation with you."

"Kaa-chan?" Shoichi Irie's Flames are teetering in the edge of Activation, already consuming every bit of spare Sun Flame he and Ayumi are pumping into the air, and how did she think she was going to contain his Activation when he was almost at bursting point? "I saw you with Tsuna-kun the other day, and he sent me a message to stay clear of you, so please tell me why I shouldn't run, Reborn and make it good or I disappear." Given the way Ayumi smiles at him, even if she hasn't taught him about Flame Lore, her son knows how to run and how to hide, and he suspects that chasing him down might actually be rather entertaining.

"Because Tsuna needs you, and I'll just hunt you down again anyway." He prods the boy's Flames and they tumble over all three of them, pouring out of Shoichi and their effect is unexpected; everything in the garden grows, lush and vigorous and still the Flames, a deep verdant green, tumble outwards and he'd swear he can see leaves in it.

"What did you  _do_?! We're a Sun line -" Shoichi drops to his knees and still the Flames are spiralling outwards, and he wonders if lucky-Tsuna can feel his 'not-Sun' going Active from where he's still sat in his classroom. Ayumi starts to move, but stills when he wraps one small hand around her wrist.

"I didn't  _do_  anything, Ayumi-the-deathless; lucky-Tsuna's Flames have twisted and warped his Guardians' to match the way his own have been forced to adapt to baka-Timoteo and Idiotsu's Stupid idea." Her eyes flash but she doesn't lash out, more concerned for Shoichi and Leon crawls down his arm, shifting into a bo-staff again and he realises what his companion had picked up on before he had, that Ayumi was unconsciously feeding her son her Flames and he understands the urge, but it isn't helping. "Either stop feeding your Flames to your boy, Ayumi or be knocked out. You're going to burn both of you out and turn a minor violation of omerta into a major one. Shoichi's Flames are likely trying to reach for Tsuna and he's at Nami-chuu, half way across Namimori from us." But she keeps pouring Flames into her son despite his warning and he smacks her with his Leon-Staff, knocking her out. With Ayumi's Flames no longer pouring into Shoichi, the boy collapses like his strings have been cut, but still breathing at least.

He carries Ayumi back into the house and leaves a note on her chest, and then feeds enough of his Flames into the illusion and makes use of his adult form to carry Shoichi back to Nana's house; Shoichi would be best served by napping in the core of his not-Sky's territory and lucky-Tsuna would squeak amusingly at finding Shoichi in his bed.

"Ara, Reborn ... san? Is that Sho-chan you're carrying?" He turned his head to nod and smile at his student's mother, and she sparkles at him, and he'd be willing to swear he saw anime-hearts in her eyes. "You look different, Reborn, and it's a  _very_  good look on you."

"Yes, and only temporary, I'm afraid, Nana. A nogitsune cursed me, and looking like this is expensive in many ways."

"Ara. Tsu-kun will be pleased to see his Sho-chan. How many should I make dinner for?"

"Kyōya, Takeshi and Shoichi will probably stay; they won't want to be very far away from lucky-Tsuna for a while."

"Ara, I can do that." He turns to finish carrying Shoichi back upstairs into lucky-Tsuna's Flame saturated bedroom. He barely hears her murmured: "So like o-nee-san! So cute!"

Shoichi immediately buries his head in lucky-Tsuna's pillow which is very cute, and he suspects that the 'Jungle' flame user - as good a name as any, and fitting considering the hue and shape of his Flames and their uncontrolled effect - will be joining lucky-Tsuna's Glacier and 'River' in trying to bed their not-Sky. Shamal needed to hurry up and get to Japan, and coax the set's Flames into trusting him enough that he could play medic for them. (Especially given the oddity of their Flames, and the already fascinating presentation of the two he'd pushed active; he'd hate to see Takeshi cut his student open in his eagerness or for Shoichi's growth factor to result in a massive infection. Kyoya seemed to have enough self-control not to freeze Tsuna, but he wasn't sure that Fon's grandson would resist the temptation to freeze his fellow Guardians to retain exclusive access to their 'not-Sky'.)

He hums thoughtfully, and decides to take a short nap of his own in his hammock; Leon would wake him up before the end of the school day. He wouldn't trust any of them out of his line of sight unless they were under supervision for the foreseeable future. (He felt like he was forgetting something, but if it was important, he'd remember it soon enough.) "Wake me up in two hours, Leon. Lucky-Tsuna needs to wait before he does anything with his Guardians."

He wakes up to Leon's tongue exploring his nose and he splutters in mild indignation (but the nap had been necessary; toddler bodies came with exhaustion and occasionally annoying limitations) and eyes his companion. "What has you so chaotic?" Leon shifts into an ornate mirror and he face palms at the colour of his eyes. "I'm leaking enough of my secondaries that they have you hyperactive?" Leon, back in his base form nods vigorously and he sighs and scrubs his face. What was it about lucky-Tsuna that had his flames like this?

Shoichi wriggles and rolls over in the bed, mumbling something into lucky-Tsuna's pillow, and he jumps down out of his hammock, and puts his fedora back on. Lucky-Tsuna should be out of school in another half an hour, which gave him enough time to contact pipsqueak-Dino again and nag him about his lack of a prompt appearance in Japan. He was itching to see what would happen when the Seal was peeled off his newest student.

Nana's busy in the kitchen when he leaves the house, cooking up a small feast, and he turns over the woman's comments about her son being as cute as her older sister, but Leon breaks his concentration by shifting into a very familiar small motorbike and he pinches the bridge of his nose. "Skull aiding and abetting you explains a lot, Leon." He ignores his low-grade headache - caused by the contemplation of what else his original student could have fed Leon - in favour of using the bike to get to Nami-chuu, and  _fuck_. The school was still guarded by delinquents, who reported to Kyōya Hibari. Who  _ran_  Nami-chuu. (He'd seen the documents on the boys desk and had enough kanji to know that they should have been on the principal's desk, not a prefect's.) At least there hadn't been an explosion, and there was no panic in the delinquent's Flames?

"Am I going to be interrupting -"

"The Chairman promised that he would obey your limitations, Reborn-sama. They were both full-clothed when I left the office to discover why you were present." He makes a disbelieving sound in the back of his throat. "Are you trying to imply that the Chairman would lie to me, Reborn-sama?"

He shakes his head. "No, just that Sky Attraction is a powerful force, Kusakabe-kun. Given a choice, I would never have touched Donna Luce, but I did." The Lightning dips his head in acknowledgement, picks him up, and brushes a thumb over a ring before stepping through a doorway. The room they step into isn't the room that which had originally been across the threshold, and he's not surprised by his student's position, only that both boys' clothes were still in place and Kyōya's hands at least were visible.

Tsuna's weren't though, and before his presence registered there was one final appreciative sound from the Glacier and he grins at the 'Hiiieee, Reborn!' as his student's hands reappear after a suspiciously zip-like sound. "For Inari's sake,  _knock_  Reborn."

"Given what I'm trying to prevent and why, lucky-Tsuna, I will not start knocking until I've given you permission to do with your Guardians what you clearly  _want_  to do." There's a whine from his student and his student's Glacier. "Off Kyōya's lap, lucky-Tsuna; we don't need to discover you create lethal gravitational anomalies when you orgasm." His student squeaks again, and he grins as his enhanced senses pick up on the flicker of Flames carried in the cry. "And there we go; weaponising that squeak of yours is going  _beautifully_."

"That sounds ... intriguing, taiyo-ojiisan."

"Why do you keep calling Reborn taiyo-ojiisan, Kyōya?"

"Because he is curse-kin to my ojiisan and until they are released from their curse they are aniki and treating them as such winds up ojiisan."

" _Kyōya_! That's evil."

"You like it, small carnivore; I felt that appreciative wiggle." He rubs his temple, and Leon laughs on his fedora. "But we should stop teasing your tutor least he decide to take his revenge. You have your duties, small carnivore; go terrify your classmates for me, while I talk to taiyo-ojiisan."

His student complies with his Glacier's instruction and crosses the room to the door and prods it thoughtfully. "How do the doors in this school even work, Kyōya?"

"Explanations later, small carnivore. Just concentrate on where you need to go, and don't resist the slight pull on your Flames." He watches his student manipulate the door-working fairly effortlessly and vanishing.

"It wouldn't work for me, would it?" He asks the question, wondering whether he'd get an answer.

"Hn. It works for my small carnivore because he is my small carnivore, and it works for the baby sword carnivore because he is my small carnivore's pet. It also only works for those of my committee who are my 'retainers' as you would call them, taiyo-ojiisan, as my Flames fuel the ‘enchantment’. Now, you implied your previous students would be tutoring the small carnivore? And that you wanted him withdrawn from most of his classes here at Nami-chuu -"


	12. Chapter 12

"We need 50lb of ice, and unless you want to make it a particularly spectacular explosion, it needs to be dense and with minimal inclusions, Kyōya. It would make an excellent control exercise for you." The Glacier scowls at him, and he makes a 'get on with it if you want to prove me wrong" gesture, and then there are cool Flames, redolent with the threat of snow, and the shimmer of tiny crystals of ice filling the room, and he raises an eyebrow when lucky-Tsuna first shivers and then his eyes start to glow. He makes a mental note; that wasn't any of the standard Flame techniques used to keep warm, though it resembled the Rain version most, and was somewhat revealing about some of the non-gravitational properties of his student's Flames.

"If you want that much ice and that large an explosion, taiyo-ojiisan, then we need to move to the field -"

"- controlling the explosion will be an exercise for Takeshi and Tsuna, Kyōya." He rubs Leon's head with Flame covered fingers, asking his companion for the thermite he'd fed him before he'd left Italy and the little lizard eventually complies, albeit with the mental equivalent of a pout that makes him think that Leon wanted in on the killing Idiotsu game. "I want to see what they can do instinctively."

"Hiiieee! Reborn, that's dangerous!"

"It's your Dying Will, lucky-Tsuna. I'll let you into a secret: if you want to live more than you want to die, you'll be fine. I'm more interested in how much damage to Kyōya's territory you can 'prevent'." His student still looks terrified, and he grins. "Just be glad I haven't found anywhere to source bears from yet, lucky-Tsuna."

Takeshi makes an amused sound, and he raises an eyebrow at the 'River'. "There are black bears in the mountains, Reborn-san, but I doubt they're what you're looking for; even Kyoko-chan could deal with one of them. They're adorable."

"I don't think Reborn means our black bears, Takeshi; but there are brown bears in Hokkaido -" he gives in to the urge to cackle, and although he probably won't use them to torment lucky-Tsuna directly, Dino's flashbacks would be hysterical if he drops them in an area with brown bears. (He doesn't understand why his Sky-student has such an issue with them; no-one - including one of Dino's precious horses - had even been injured during that prank. He'd understand the phobia if they had been.)

"Allow this to damage the lab and be bitten to death, small carnivore."

"... Kyōya that isn't a threat, and Reborn won't let you, yet."

"Yes, well, lucky-Tsuna. Go put this -" he hands the thermite, in a ceramic plant pot to his student, "- on the ice, and then you can use that fire you're using to keep yourself warm to light it. If you can't, I will."

"But I don't know what I'm doing! I just wanted to stay warm while Kyōya-senpai worked on the ice, Reborn."

"Maa, maa, just try Tsuna. Tou-san said Flames are about the things you can imagine and I did manage to use Tou-san's trick despite us sort of having different Flames." His student growls at his River, and Takeshi bops him on the nose affectionately. "I'm going to try and do the bit Reborn wants me to do, Tsuna, so will you try it for me?"

"Fine." Takeshi beams at his not-Sky and oh, that smile would be lethal when the boys were released into the Underworld in Italy. Even if all of the Guardians were focused on their very pretty Sky, they would attract a lot of attention for that devotion.

"So what do I need to do, Reborn?" He shakes his head as that smile is turned on him, and he's momentarily dazzled by it. That was fascinating; even Lal Mirch had failed to have that effect on him prior to the Fated Day; perhaps it was something to do with the twist that Tsuna had induced in his Guardians' Flames.

"You've seen your father contain fires, yes?" He'd confirmed with Tsuyoshi that Takeshi had seen the effect he was curious about; it would identify some of the differences between Takeshi and Tsuyoshi's Flames. Takeshi nodded. "That's what I want you to do."

"I think I can do it? Never done it before."

"Reborn -"

"Just do it, lucky-Tsuna. It'll be pretty and informative." His student frowns and glares at the pile of thermite that had been carefully piled on top of the ice, and he holds his breath to see whether Tsuna could, a tiny star sparks and then collapses, and the thermite catches. Takeshi gasps, and he makes an amused sound because the best bit was yet to come. "Wait for it -"

The thermite drips through the plant-pot and the ice hisses and then cracks and explodes, and the raging River of Takeshi's Flames spills out into the room, smothering the exploding mess before it damages Kyōya's school, and then the world went impossibly heavy and the explosion just stopped. Which was eerie and reinforced that Tsuna's Flames had a very different set of properties to Sky Flames, because it's only Vongola's 'secret' technique that could perhaps mimic the effect that had just been achieved. "What the fuck?"

"Lucky-Tsuna's Flames appear to utilise gravity in much the same way as a Sky's make use of harmony, Takeshi. I could explain the equations that make what he just did possible - although not, supposedly, feasible, but given how poor your mathematics education has been so far, they'll go straight over your head."

"I can do maths -"

"- only when it features baseball, Takeshi. Reborn, should I feel dizzy now?"

"Only if you've exerted yourself, lucky-Tsuna. Which judging by the entirely theoretical trick you pulled off the answer is yes."

"Oh good." His student faints, and he shakes his head and makes an amused sound as Kyōya swoops in to pick lucky-Tsuna up in a princess carry before he can do a thing. With lucky-Tsuna unconscious, there's a fluctuation in the local gravity, and the explosion implodes, and there's nothing left, and even if Verde wanted to argue, he was going to get at least two academic papers out of this because the implications for applied mathematics were astonishing.

"I'll take the small carnivore back to his den, taiyo-ojiisan." He pinches the bridge of his nose and nods.

"We'll all head back to his den Kyōya; his Kaa-san keeps mentioning her older sister, and I'm curious as to what she'll say when you carry him home." He was also curious as to what would happen when they put lucky-Tsuna into bed with Shoichi; watching the dynamics settle out in his new student's clearly very poly-amorous set was thoroughly amusing him.

"The key to the laboratory is in the right outside pocket of my gakuran, baby-sword-carnivore." Takeshi shamelessly gropes Kyōya to retrieve the indicated key, and he covers his eyes and allows the boys their moment. "Leave it in the key safe outside the laboratory." There's a vehicle waiting outside of the school buildings, and they all piled into it; one of the Glacier's minions was driving it, and it made things far more discreet than one of the three of them carrying him across half the city.

They tumble back out again at Nana's house, and the woman is waiting with a soft expression, and he's beginning to think that the woman has some sort of Flame on the same spectrum as her son's and how the hell had Idiotsu missed that? Or had he not missed it, and wanted to see if it would breed true in his son? "O-nee-san would be so pleased to see how my Tsu-kun's developing, Reborn-san. I miss her."

"Your o-nee-san?" He allows Kyōya to take lucky-Tsuna inside, but he knows he can only spend a moment or two on the doorstep or he'd find that his student's Guardians had debauched him despite his warnings about the possible consequences to them.

"She was just like Tsu-kun, and it was adorable seeing her find her own, but she didn't like the busyness of the main islands, so I haven't seen her since Iemitsu swept me up and brought me to Namimori." He bites off his immediate response to Nana; he needed to decide whether she was being intentionally vague, or if it was more of the damage that Iemitsu had done in trying to glue her back together with Sky Flames. The two options would require a certain difference in handling to extract actual usable information. "But I haven't been able to remember how to contact her in a very long time. I vaguely remember sending her the news of Tsuna's birth, but everything beyond that is sort of hazy, Reborn." More damage from Idiotsu's bumbling attempt to help her than anything else then, and he curses the man's post-Giotto ancestors; he's run out of names to call the idiot himself.

"There might be something I can do to help with that, Nana, and we need to have a long conversation at some point in the near future, but right now I need to go and make sure lucky-Tsuna's Guardians don't accidentally kill anyone while trying to take advantage of him."

"Ara, o-nee-san enjoyed that part of bonding with her own, and the only mishap involved her having to pick which of them was going to be her 'official' husband, Reborn-san. Thwarting Tsu-kun is cruel and dangerous; frustration makes it all much harder to manage. O-nee-san taught me that; it's why I make things like kimchee when I'm upset." Perhaps he'd get Skull and Viper involved in his torture and torment Idiotsu plan; between the three of them, they could keep him alive long enough to thoroughly traumatise baka-Timoteo and remind everyone why you didn't fuck with the Arcobaleno. Because a briefing pack as bad as the one he'd received was more than sufficient reason to execute the man; add in everything else he appeared to have done to Nana and Tsuna, the torture was completely justified.

"Perhaps you're right, Nana, but given that Lucky-Tsuna and Shoichi are both unconscious, I probably should supervise the boys." She covers her mouth, and he gets the feeling that she's laughing at him, but she doesn't say anything, and he goes up the outer wall of the house with Leon's aid to best be able to surprise his student and his student's rather wicked Guardians. He eases the window up from outside (a security issue he'll need to resolve in the next few weeks, especially if lucky-Tsuna realised that he would move out of his bedroom under the right circumstances) and uses his Mist to silence his movements. Lucky-Tsuna's in his bed, Shoichi curled into him, and Kyōya and Takeshi spooning the pair of them, one on each side, and he takes a couple of quick pictures of the very adorable diorama. (He can see six hands, and he considers that enough, especially as everyone is quite clearly wearing trousers still.) He refrains from waking them all up, choosing instead to settle into his hammock and work on the outline of two academic papers on his tablet.


	13. Chapter 13

"Hiiieee! Sho-chan? Please tell me Reborn-san didn't threaten you? I told him to leave you alone." He looks up from his tablet - he'd just gotten started on outlining the second paper his student had given him the idea for - but he doesn't catch the content of Kyōya's rumbled response, but his student's makes its likely content clear. "No trying to bite Reborn! What do I have to do to get you two not to choose fighting as the first option?!"

"It's fun, and Kyōya and I both like having someone to test our fangs against. We'd like to spar with you, because it's hot when you're using your Flames, but if we have to settle for you giving us our 'prizes' afterwards ..." One of the not-Rain's hands disappears, and he reaches for Leon, intent on preventing mischief. His companion shapes himself into a nerf-gun, and he takes a deal of delight in firing darts at his student and his set.

"What you do with your 'not-Sky' in your free time boys will be entirely up to what Tsuna is comfortable within a few weeks, but for now, hands off until I've had a chance to assess your self-control." There are whines from Kyōya and Takeshi, and then a shriek of his own from Sho-chan.

"Kyōya! Ask before doing something like that, whether it's to me, or to Sho-chan, or to any of the others I'm supposed to be gathering!"

"Felt good, though, Tsu-kun." He jumps down from his hammock, nerf-Leon still in hand, and bounces over to the bed. "And Reborn was very polite about threatening me. And apparently, Kaa-chan is like Reborn? I walked in on her trying to throw a fireball, and I want to know how long she's been able to do that, because we could have asked her so many questions about the thing you can do with gravit-" The last word's cut off, and he bounces up onto the bed just in time to see his student press his not-Sun into the bed and kiss him senseless. He fires a nerf-dart at his student's butt, and there are a shriek and two laughs, and a very dazed Shoichi.

"Ayumi-the-deathless was a very skilled assassin before she disappeared to raise you and your sister, Shoichi. Now, I believe you have some notes on my new student's ability to play with gravity -"

"Reborn! Explanations before you plunge straight into the indoctrination, or I'll try using the new trick Sho-chan reconstructed on you." His student's attempt to regain control of the situation is adorable, as is the flush on his cheeks, but Shamal and the others hadn't arrived yet, so he was going to break things up.

"Go ahead and try, lucky-Tsuna; you might succeed, but one of the few upsides to our damnable curse is that I won't stay dead."

"But bringing taiyo-ojiisan back will hurt Aria-hime." He freezes. Aria-hime. Did that mean that Kyōya had met their Sky? "Save it for the traitorous gaijin, small carnivore."

"Still want to work through the rest of the mathematics involved before you use that on anyone, Tsu-kun. And perhaps with a test run on a rat or something? Yeah, we know what it should do, but using it untested is an invitation to negative karma." He perks up again at the mention of the mathematics and Tsuna tilts his head, and his student's eyes glow contemplatively, making him wonder how his hyper intuition interacted with his Flames. (And for that matter, was the Seal responsible for warping Tsuna's Flames, or were they from his mother's side, and what was going to happen when the Seal was removed? Pipsqueak-Dino needed to get here yesterday.)

"I think we're going to get along very well, Shoichi Irie." Leon spontaneously changes form into a satellite phone, and he answers it on speakerphone; there’s only one person it could be. "Please tell me that you've landed in Tokyo and are on your way to Namimori, pipsqueak-Dino."

"No. We've just landed in Hokkaido, Reborn; I've been flying into there with my horses for long enough that customs are willing to overlook things for me. Like the luggage, Shamal and Bianchi insisted on bringing with them." He pinches the bridge of his nose; 'special' luggage with those two could mean any number of things, and he was fairly sure he wanted plausible deniability. "We'll be about eighteen hours. I have six horses to drop off at my stables in Aomori; I brought up their delivery to cover our movements." There's a scuffle on the other end of the line and a sigh from pipsqueak-Dino. "This is going to be a very long trip. I don't promise that Shamal, Bianchi or their luggage are going to be in pristine condition once we arrive in Namimori, Reborn."

"As long as they're both alive. Verde has plans for them, and he'll be cranky if he has to engage in necromancy first."

"Can he - no, I don't want to know. I'm going to check on the horses and the luggage, and we'll arrive when we arrive." Leon shifts back from satellite phone form, making it clear that the call was done.

"Necromancy?" The question comes from Shoichi, who has finally emerged from under his student, and has a curious look on his face that he recognises. "What's the Science behind it? I assume there is Science, given Tsuna said that Verde was supposed to be a Scientist and you referenced him in connection with the concept of necromancy."

"Sho-chan, you may not learn how to cast 'resurrect' in real life. You'd abuse the knowledge."

"I wouldn't. Much." His student's Glacier makes an interested noise, and he covers his eyes as the newest addition to lucky-Tsuna's set is kissed senseless. Again. Fortunately the boy's reserves had been mostly drained by that morning's rather spectacular Activation, and was taking time to be restored, especially as he was hoarding his own Flames rather ruthlessly, so there were no repercussions. (Given the way that his Flames had affected the garden they'd been standing in, and the serious helicobacter pylori colony in Shoichi's stomach - bad enough that he was already experiencing ulceration - he considered his concern justified despite Nana's attempt to be reassuring.)

And the fact that he had to hoard his own Flames to prevent Shoichi using them to refill his reserves, and he'd caught both Takeshi and Kyōya making use of Tsuyoshi's shed Flames was fascinating, and had all sorts of implications given his student and his set's Flames apparent rarity and what the Administrator had implied the pacifiers did. "Shoichi needs some specialised medical treatment, and the fact that he does is an example of why I'm restricting you from doing more than heavy petting, boys. As tempted as you might be to go further, you could seriously injure yourselves. Now. Up and out of bed and downstairs; Nana has dinner for you, and I suppose I should explain who is about to show up, and who else is lurking in town."

"Hn. The small carnivore and I -"

"Kyōya. We share. Which means waiting until everyone is ready." The Glacier pouts at Takeshi, who had cut in before Kyōya could protest that he and Tsuna had more than enough self-control to be allowed to touch each other to their hearts' content. "We could have another round of sparring though ..." At least he can leave supervising that to Tsuyoshi - he doubted that Takeshi would allow Kyōya to do more than kiss him in front of his father - at least until he'd thrown pipsqueak-Dino at the man. "... maybe with Tsuna-koi as our prize?" He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. At least this was a reciprocal arrangement, unlike the situation Luce had forced him into.

Leon shifts in his hands, taking the form of a cattle-prod, and he pokes Takeshi with it, who screeches, and then blushes, and he was going to have a hell of a time herding his student's set. "No cherries may be used as prizes, Takeshi. Now. Move, or I apply this to Tsuna." 'River' and Glacier Flames flood the room, and he sighs, and plays the Sun, forcing them both to submit. "I am the Sun of the I Prescelti Sette; you have a long way to go before you can use your Flames to force me into submission."

(The downside to having to do that is that Shoichi's reserves go from near empty to full with breath-taking speed. Which, if his Flames' nature was 'Jungle', made sense; River and Sun would make a Jungle grow ... he needed Verde awake and present before his student did anything more unusual.)

"Moving. Moving. Kyōya-senpai, Takeshi-kun, Sho-chan. I don't want Kaa-chan's cooking to turn poisonous. Do you?" The four of them scramble out of the bed, and he ignores the hands sneakily caressing the more submissive members of the set. (He was already starting to pick out the dynamics in the set, the way that Takeshi wanted to kneel even more than he wanted to protect, and his student only wanting to yield to his Glacier, and the possessiveness that Tsuna had over Shoichi given the way they'd curled around the sleeping boy. He doesn't want to know that much of how his student's set was going to work; it was bad enough that he knew exactly how pipsqueak-Dino preferred to behave when he was in private.)

Shoichi picks him up and lifts him onto his shoulder, and he balances there, and when they get downstairs, there's a feast laid out, and Nana flutters around them. He tilts his head and looks at the meals set out for everyone; they were different, themed in some way that he wasn't quite following, and Nana had found and adapted two high chairs from somewhere. He wanted to protest, but they were plush, obviously altered, and it did mean he could sit at the table comfortably. "Did Verde say he'd be here for dinner, Nana?" The boys had dived into their food, and he was eyeing the meal in front of him, with its brilliant saffron yellow egg yolk, and Nana's bowl full of pickles with just enough rice to be considered a meal rather than a snack.

"He did. He'll be here within a few minutes. Eat up, Reborn-san; mine and the boys' meals are traditional, but I had to improvise for you, and I want to know if the idea worked." He gives in and stirs the yolks in, and almost moans at the flavours of the dish. "It's so good to see Tsu-kun fold another into his set, but I do wish I could get a message to o-nee-san." Verde walks into the kitchen unannounced, and hops up into the other high chair, settling into the cushions. "Tell me if the Sichuan buttons are a pleasant addition to your salad, or too much, Verde-san; while there are traditional meals to celebrate their bondings for the boys and I, I had to improvise for you and Reborn-san."

He contemplates Nana. "You were educated in Flames, and their uses, weren't you, Nana?"

"The memories are getting clearer as Tsu-kun's set forms, Reborn." He stuffs another mouthful of yolk covered rice into his mouth to cover his desire to describe how he was planning to eviscerate Idiotsu. Yes, the man had been trying to patch his wife back together again, but he'd scrambled her memories in the attempt, projecting his desire for a Yamato Nadeshiko onto her. Or at least that was the most probable reason for the way she was teasing him. Though she was also winding him up with a certain amount of mildly malicious glee, he suspected.

"Kaa-chan?"

"I wasn't very well after your birth, Tsu-kun. Your tou-san tried to help, but made rather a mess trying to do so. O-nee-san has eyes and Flames like yours, but yours seem to be very much stronger than hers were the last time we saw each other. Is that from Iemitsu's family, that strength, Reborn-san?"

"Most probably, Nana-san." Verde had interjected before he could. "Many of the Skies of your husband's line are overpowered; they're even generally strong enough to join the I Prescelti Sette, and have done from time to time. Based on the fact that the Giglio Nero claim inhuman heritage is responsible for their strength, and often claim no fathers for their heirs, it is entirely possible that both they and your husband's family are not fully human, but as I wasn't allowed to take samples from Luce, and Aria has been evading me for years, I have been unable to confirm that."

"While my sister would laugh and claim that she's part kitsune, I suspect that would just be wishful thinking, even if the bursting into fire does make an argument for not-wholly human."

"Kaa-chan, does that mean you can remember oba-san's name?" There's silence as his student's Guardians stop eating, chopsticks hovering in mid-air as they wait for an answer, too; the hope in his student's voice was a little bit heart-breaking.

"No. Not yet. The island is private, and those of us who have Flames ended up choosing to live there most of the time, but I'm not sure why I didn't take Tsu-kun there when Iemitsu left for Italy. Everything is still fuzzy; I think I was trying to protect the rest of the Family from Iemitsu, though I'm not sure why? " Nana makes it clear the conversation is done, stepping away from the table and starting the process of cleaning up the mess that she'd made preparing her feast, and Tsuna shakes his head when Takeshi starts to get up from his seat to help.

"Kaa-chan would rather see you enjoy your food, Takeshi. The fact that she can't remember anyone's names, or how to contact them frustrates her." His student's lips curve into a smile. "Might be a good time to get your tousan to talk to her about making things for Takesushi? She's already made enough kimchee and kombucha to last us for weeks, and I prefer _not_  to eat fermented cabbage every day. Does he know how to make sake properly?"

"I think so -" he tunes his student out briefly, slightly concerned about the way Shoichi and Verde's heads were bent together.

"- I'm not mad wanting to apply Science to Flames?"

"There are some perfectly logical explanations for how Flames work, and they've allowed me to develop a great deal of insight into other parts of Science."

At least he'd already handed Verde a minion to train and use as his lab assistant; Shoichi had a lot of healing and learning how to utilise his Flames properly before he allowed him to disappear into a lab for days at a time. He was strong enough that he needed to learn self-control before they - Verde and himself - taught the boy how to integrate his Flames into his experiments.

"Sho-chan, we've had discussions about your love of Science. What did we agree?" He felt the way lucky-Tsuna's Flames caressed Shoichi's, gently nurturing the younger redhead, grounding him and Verde had his tablet out, looking absolutely fascinated at the Flames he knew the Lightning could see, thanks to an earlier ill-advised experiment.

"No manic cackling, or indulging in new experiments without my Tsu-kun present to remind me to eat and drink and sleep." The click reverberated to his enhanced senses; the two boys had obviously only been waiting for Shoichi to achieve an Active state to slide into what he'd call Harmony between a Sky and a Sky's Element.

"And why did we come to that agreement, Sho-chan?"

"Because I hospitalised myself trying to figure out how you turned that assassin into a diamond, and you were upset with me when you woke up, Tsu-kun." A diamond?!

His student had crossed to behind his youngest and newest Guardian, and Shoichi leaned into him, and lucky-Tsuna kissed his forehead gently. "You're not allowed to hurt yourself for me, Sho-chan. Nor are you, Takeshi and Kyōya." He was still stuck on the fact his newest student had turned someone into a diamond. He knew about the Vongola's ice trick, but a diamond? The gravitational pressure involved in making a diamond were phenomenal! He pinches the bridge of his nose, desperate to stave off his headache until later. "Did that phone-call earlier mean the doctor you wanted to check on us is nearly here, Reborn?"

"And two of my other students, lucky-Tsuna, one of whom I am now ninety-per-cent sure has the same sort of Flames as your mother, and the other has the Flames you were supposed to have; he should be able to remove the remnants of the Seal."

"The one Reborn called pipsqueak-Dino said that they had landed in Hokkaido, small carnivore. It will take a minimum of fifteen hours to arrive, more if 'pipsqueak-Dino' is as fond of his horses as he sounds and is reluctant to leave them behind." The Glacier sounded approving, and he wondered whether Dino and Tsuna would end up having to have a conversation full of blushes over Kyōya. And goddamnit, he was going to have to give the expanded and updated for Flame bullshit 'Talk' to the boys in the next few days.

(Training Bianchi and Dino had taught him more than he ever wanted to know; he'd been comfortable in his heterosexuality, damnit.)

"Kyōya, Takeshi, why don't you head over to Takesushi and see if you can talk to Yamamoto-san about Kaa-chan's kimchee and kombucha? There should be jars of it in the kitchen, if you want to take a sample, and then you can spar if you must; Shoichi and I will go on check on his Kaa-chan, because Sho-chan remembers someone knocking her out, and we're both going to worry about her until we've checked on her." He frowns; Ayumi was likely to be angry about Shoichi's Active status, but Tsuna was a not-Sky, and apparently knew how to protect himself, given the 'turned someone into a diamond' throwaway line, so letting him work on the woman would probably be sensible if he wanted to rope her into teaching the boys. "I assume you're going to show Verde-san the recording from the lab and talk through it with him, Reborn-san? I know I did something weird, but normally Shoichi figures out what it is, so maybe you and Verde can so I can reproduce it?"

"Give me the footage." The imperious demand from Verde distracts him long enough for the boys to slip out and he sighs and rubs his temple. He'd have to trust that they would do what his student had directed them to do, and Verde's reactions were going to be fascinating, so he brought the recording - courtesy of Leon - up on his own tablet and sat back with a grin to watch.


	14. Chapter 14

"This is as ridiculous as Daniela's bullshit ice trick! Fucking idiot Vongola and their casual ability to mess with the laws of physics."

"... didn't that ice trick enable you to produce superconductors and a supercomputer a good two decades before the wider academic community? And that was a perfectly reasonable use of Harmony once we figured out the mechanics." Verde harrumphed, and he snickered; that had been an excellent, albeit frenetic research project as they tried to stay ahead of the fascists'. (And the supercomputer had made staying ahead of their cryptography experts far more manageable, which had given him the opportunity to actually go hunting as opposed to being stuck in the Iron Fort monitoring communications.) "So was that anti-matter, or something else, Verde?"

"I'd have to get him to repeat it in a fully rigged test chamber. There's a couple of possibilities; you said that all of the effects you'd seen from him previously had been related to gravity?"

"Fluctuations in it, yes."

"And he doesn't show any sign of having a 'creation' flame?"

"Not yet, but he's a Vongola, and you know they break reality on a regular basis, with or without a 'Mist' Flame."

"True. At least we're not going to get bored this way."

"You taunted Murphy." Verde makes his own amused sound as he tries to persuade Leon into at least transforming back into the nerf-gun.

"You're not allowed to shoot me, and I'm not allowed to poison you, Reborn. Stop trying to be 'dramatic'." He snarls, and Leon turns into a pair of handcuffs, and he wasn't pipsqueak-Dino, damnit. "You sent Fon away, and you know I don't fight, Reborn; either go and test your student's Glacier's skill set or simmer down and work on one of the Millenium Problems."

"I've already told Kyoya that if he knows he's fighting me, then I've fucked up."

"Then it's either the maths or biting your tongue and asking him for a spar anyway." Leon shifts into a small tablet, displaying the Millenium Problem he's currently working on, and he settles back into the cushions to work on it and wait for Nana to get past her unhappiness and frustration at the situation Idiotsu had landed her in and be willing to continue the conversation. "You said that you thought Nana's Flames were the same as Bianchi Falco's, and that Poison Cooking ran in the Falco Family with sufficient prevalence that her father wasn't surprised she manifested it, yes?"

"Two of her paternal aunts and her great-aunt on that side of the Family had it to a lesser or greater degree; Don Falco married out of the extended Family to try and avoid it breeding true, but she manifested it anyway."

"It will be interesting to see if she slides into a Guardian bond with your student." Leon shifts into a cushion as he headdesks. Bianchi as lucky-Tsuna's quasi-Storm was going to be a fascinating headache, especially given that Idiotsu would probably start going on about his manly son attracting the ladies. He'd have to keep Bianchi in Japan somehow to avoid her ramming a plate full of poison cooking down Idiotsu's throat and thwarting his vengeance on the man. Perhaps learning to cook safely without having to drug herself would do the trick? Or if that failed, Nana's charms might do the trick; or researching his student's mother's family?

(He remembered her tearful distress after Shamal had shared her little brother's medical scans, showing the damage her cooking had done to his digestive tract, and how she'd only snapped out of it when he'd gotten her to help him complete a contract and acquire the 'victim's' organs as Shamal required them to restore Hayato to full health. That she'd negotiated with Shamal successfully and taken full part in healing him had helped significantly in restoring their tense relationship to something more wholesome. At least by Mafia standards.)

"Lucky-Tsuna would be lucky to have her, which means she probably will slide into his set. He has the damndest luck; I'm beginning to think it's how the Hyper Intuition adapted to being fueled by his not-Sky Flame." Verde looked thoughtful and tapped something into his tablet.

"Doesn't she have a half-sibling? What do his Flames look like?"

"Smokin' Bomb is - as far as I'm aware - a Cloudy Storm. Or at least those were the Flames I saw evidence of."

"Mhmm. Will be fascinating to see if he'd be pulled 'down' to Earth by young Tsunayoshi; the predisposition must be there if Bianchi's Flame is from the same spectrum."

"I'm sorry about earlier, gentlemen. I was frustrated enough that if I'd stayed at the table, I'd have put all of my hard work to waste." The woman retakes her seat at the table after having poured three glasses from a carafe of something that smelt faintly alcoholic - kocha kinoko? He flicked his eyes to Verde, who pulled out a small probe while he distracted the woman.

"So how much do you remember, Nana? Is there a Family name you'd rather claim, for example? Or names for lucky-Tsuna's Flames and those of his Guardians?"

"I remember worrying about not being able to feed Tsu-kun and him getting ill, and Iemitsu-koi -" the suffix had the sound of something he added by rote this time, "- coming back, and my husband's Flames were tainted, and something was wrong, and then I was settled in Namimori, raising Tsu-kun and not able to remember much more than the basic control exercises and that I needed to do them regularly but I couldn't remember why. I'm lucky that o-nee-san agreed to help me make those into reflexes."

Or, rather, lucky-Tsuna was once again lucky because if Bianchi and Hayato were anything to go by, lucky-Tsuna would have been in desperate need of Shamal's immediate attention without those control exercises, and finding 'ethically' sourced, compatibly sized organs would be something of a nightmare outside of Italy. "There's a reason I keep calling Tsuna 'lucky', Nana."

"Mmm. Can you remember the names of the Flames that belong to the same spectrum as yours, Nana, or the accepted properties? It would help us devise appropriate control exercises for the boys so that the little sadist next to me can stop thwarting them."

"Ara. My Flames ferment and decompose; o-nee-san and Tsu-kun's Flame affects gravity and makes them exceedingly stubborn sometimes. Takeshi-kun's - o-nee-san's set wasn't complete, so I don't know what his Flame's property is precisely, but o-nee-san was being very picky because she said a River wounds and soothes the Earth in equal measure, and Kyo-kun's Flames make things and have you heard of 'mirror magic' Verde-san? O-nee-san's Glacier said that she thought the tales were about her Flames because she could reproduce most of the tricks in the story fairly easily. Sho-chan will have wonderful, productive gardens when he's got his Flames under control."

"So. Earth, River, Glacier and ...?"

"Ara! Sho-chan's a Forest, and Tsu-kun still needs a Desert, a Swamp and a Mountain." Leon shifted just in time for him to headdesk without giving himself a concussion. "Reborn-san?"

"We've been using River, Glacier, Jungle and not!Sky for the boys' Flames. In hindsight, Earth makes sense for lucky-Tsuna's." Verde hums, thoughtfully, and he almost flinches because that wasn't a sound that tended to result in sane ideas.

"What are the properties of Desert and Mountain, Nana? It might help me figure out who might work as 'lucky'-Tsuna's other Guardians; before your husband comes home or his Boss visits, it would be a good idea for him to have a full set." Nana tilted her head and looked at him thoughtfully.

"Ara, Tsu-kun has a Mountain already, Reborn-san, but he's been crushing on him and squeaks everytime I suggest Tsu-kun talk to him." He raises an eyebrow.

"You noticed that Tsu-kun is not-heterosexual, Nana?"

"Oh yes. He's like o-nee-san, Reborn. It's one of the reasons I haven't been encouraging Iemitsu-koi to come home recently."

He pinches his nose and tries to decide whether to tell her of one of the Mafia's open secrets to break her of the rote use of the adoring suffix, but he chooses to leave that for later. Idiotsu's bastards weren't in Japan so she wouldn't be running into them immediately. He would need to tell her before Idiotsu sent Basil to check on his younger brother, lest there be an outbreak of botulism in Namimori.

"I thought that you said your o-nee-san had to choose an official husband?"

"O-nee-san is o-nee-san, and if you suggest otherwise, I will ferment every coffee bean in Namimori and watch you suffer." He drops the subject; his caffeine addiction wasn't something he was willing to imperil, and if Nana's o-nee-san had once been male-bodied and a skilled medic had helped her, then all it meant was that his student wouldn't have to deal with two parents being idiots. "O-nee-san didn't have a Desert either, but they create things, and there was one of the Deserts who took refuge on the Island who made the most exquisite glasswork. Kaa-san sold it for her." That was something that Bianchi could potentially use to find Nana's 'main island' family if her memory didn't return; there couldn't be that many possibilities, could there? "Deserts are creative and artistic, though sometimes their art doesn't look like art until you know them."

He lets that go; he can't think of anyone it applies to right now, and he'd need to observe those around lucky-Tsuna to find someone that might fit. "You said lucky-Tsuna already had a Mountain, Nana?"

"Ara. Tsu-kun's crush on Sasawaga-kun is adorable. He blushes when Sasawaga-kun shouts 'EXTREME' as he runs past."

"Does Sasawaga-kun have white hair and a bandage over the bridge of his nose?"

"That's him! Everyone thinks our Tsu-kun has a crush on Sasawaga-chan, but that's just because Sasawaga-kun is a good big brother to Sasawaga-chan, so they're often together outside of Nami-chuu." The Knuckle-lookalike then; which made him wonder whether someone had tried to set up a neo-Primo generation; if they had, lucky-Tsuna's Flame issue and Bianchi's Poison Cooking had thwarted that.

"Hmm. I might go and inspect the boy to make sure he's suitable for lucky-Tsuna. I know that Takeshi went to talk to Tsuyoshi about your kimchee, Nana; you may want to take some over to Takesushi and talk to him yourself?"

"And I am going to go and run several simulations on how your student could have done that, Reborn, and put Haru to work. If your Sky-student is to arrive tomorrow, she should be immersed in the first stage of the training before his Flames make her go gaga." Pipsqueak-Dino was far too well behaved to Sky-maze someone accidentally, and would probably be rather Rain drunk himself if he sent him off to Takesushi as a 'reward' for having succeeded in not killing Shamal and Bianchi. Thinking of which:

"Nana, could you also ask Tsuyoshi to set aside one of his private rooms, and make himself available to prepare sushi for the Sky I tempted him with, say around seven tomorrow evening?"

"Ara. I'll walk over with you Reborn; the Sasawagas live in that neighbourhood, too." She offers him her arm, and he makes a split second choice to take the offer, and hop up onto her shoulder. "I still have Tsu-kun's baby-carrier, Reborn. Would that be easier on you than walking or balancing? You're a bit heavy for me to walk all the way to Takesushi with you balanced on just one shoulder." He mumbles something, and Leon shifts into a baby-carrier that Nana puts on, and he slides off her shoulder into it. "That's better. I won't forget you're still an adult, Reborn-san." Her Flames brush against his briefly, making his own move sluggishly and he finds himself purring as she picks up several jars from the kitchen, and leaves the house.


	15. Chapter 15

He’s not going to introduce himself to the Sasawagas. Not immediately; he needs to gauge the method of approach and how much the family know. (And given the presence of a younger sister, whether there was another Flame Active that would need to be farmed out for training.) What he finds is both relief and disappointment; the family has managed to lose any knowledge or trace of belonging to their world, _but_ the little sister - one of lucky-Tsuna’s classmates - is starting the slow bloom of a Sky Activating and in a different reality, he suspects he would be pushing her and lucky-Tsuna together to ensure a Sky heir for his student, but now she was just another headache to deal with.

He wraps his hand around the pacifier and activates the adult illusion and feeds it with his secondary to make sure that it’ll last long enough, and knocks on the front door. (Training for the little Sky would have to wait, though given pipsqueak-Dino’s nature, he’d probably find her within a day or two and decide he needed an apprentice, but the older child was a boxer, and that opened a relatively straightforward path to bringing him under his influence.)

The ensuing conversation goes reasonably well; he presents himself as a boxing scout and offers Ryohei a chance to work out at his gym and early training towards a medical career. His parents eat it up and take one of his pieces of Misty paperwork to read through and sign off on. (He would genuinely provide training for the boy, but Shamal was about to find himself with an apprentice for medicine, which would probably result in him being less frustrated about being summoned because he _much_ preferred being a medic.) He barely gets out of the house though before his Flames and the pacifier decide they’ve had enough, and he curls up in the bushes with Leon for a few minutes to recover as he’s forcibly returned to toddler-sized, and every muscle _aches_. (Just using the illusion ‘normally’ doesn’t hurt, but he couldn’t afford to revert while he was with a civilian family, which meant that he’d fought it’s collapse tooth and nail.)

“Are you okay, Reborn-san?” He looks up at Nana, who kneels down to avoid him having to crick his neck, and he shakes his head. “Want me to carry you home and run you a hot bath?” He nods, and she scoops him up and balances him on her hip; Leon shifts, wrapping around them both to help support his weight, and he leans against her, her Flames soothing where they brush against his. “Tsuyoshi-san bought the kimchee I took for him to try, and wants more of it. And gave me two new recipes to try, too.” Her cheerful babble about having her own source of income and _remembering_ flows over him as she carries him back to his student’s house, and once there, runs the bath, and actually asks him whether he needs her to help him further. When he shakes his head, she smiles and retreats, leaving him a stool to climb into the bath with.

The hot water feels incredible against his sore muscles, and he leans back and lets it ease the pain.

“I’m home, Kaa-chan!” Lucky-Tsuna’s voice echoes up the stairs, but he doesn’t move; the water was still warm against his skin, and he didn’t have the energy to shift, yet, but he enhances his hearing so he can eavesdrop. “Irie-san is fine, though rather annoyed at Reborn and being mean to herself about Shoichi having stomach ulcers. Hopefully, the doctor that Reborn said was coming - one of his former students - will be able to do something about them.”

“You’re blushing, Tsu-kun. Is it a good blush?”

“Touching Sho-chan feels _really_ good, Kaa-chan.”

“It should, Tsu-kun. Earths are their sets’ heart, and while it won’t be sexual with your _whole_ set, Tsu-kun, it will be for some, because they don’t _want_ to split their loyalties. But you might find that one or two of them need you to be completely _not_ sexual for them. It’s a good thing that all three of the companions you’ve found and claimed so far are interested in you, sweetheart, because it means they _haven’t_ been broken in the past.”

“Broken?”

“Their trust betrayed, Tsu-kun.” He hears his student hug his mother so hard that she squeaks, and he stops the enhancement of his hearing in favour of climbing out of the tub and wraps himself in one of the thick towels that Nana stocked the bathroom. Would he be unable to have a sexual relationship with his Sky, even if the curse was broken? He _missed_ how Daniela and Luce - he almost vomits at the thought - had made him feel. He pulls a shirt and pants out of his bag and shrugs into them before padding downstairs to find his student and his student’s mother working together in the kitchen.

“How was Ayumi, lucky-Tsuna?”

“She had a sore head, and was worried about Sho-chan, Reborn, but she didn’t try and throw a fireball at me if that’s what you were concerned about.”

“And how much of Sho-chan did you touch, lucky-Tsuna?”

“The world didn’t end, Reborn, nor is Namimori currently blanketed under a jungle of weeds, so how much he touched doesn’t really matter.” Lucky-Tsuna went bright pink, and hid his head in his hands. “As long as the boys are happy and safe - and I’ve got you a book I ordered on how to stay safe and have fun, Tsu-kun, which you will read tonight - then I’m not bothered, and neither should you Reborn; I trust them to have self-control.”

“Kaa-chan!”

“The least I can do after everything that's happened is trust you, Tsu-kun.”

Leon shifts in his hands, forming into a satellite phone in his hands, and he jumps up into the padded chair Nana had created for him, and his student whines as he answers the phone and Nana puts the threatened book in front of him along with an English dictionary.

“Can I please kill one of them, Reborn? They’re squabbling like toddlers, and it’s driving me up the wall.”

“A good Don doesn’t kill his subordinates or his senpai, pipsqueak-Dino.”

“Good subordinates and senpai don’t spend _six_ hours deliberately winding someone up.”

“Pipsqueak-Dino, stop whining and get to the point.” Lucky-Tsuna bursts into flames, and that was at least a little bit hysterical that embarrassment at being made to read a book on sex ed in the dining room had been enough to push his student into Dying Will mode. Perhaps he’d get a little more entertainment out of letting the boys engage in heavy petting and teasing them about how hard they blush. “You wouldn’t be complaining if it was Romario teasing you on a long road trip.”

“Reborn!”

“Oh. It’s not just me that you tease, Reborn -” he hears the unspoken ‘- and that makes me feel better’, and returns his attention to pipsqueak-Dino.

“Two of the horses refused to leave the trailer, and are currently grooming Bianchi and Shamal’s ‘special’ luggage who is rather miffed about it and Shamal’s realised his granddaughter - did you know she was his granddaughter, Reborn? - is competition when it comes to dating pretty women and is sort of indignant about it, and their spat is currently making my Flames _itch_.”

“Then knock the two of them out, bring the horses, and feed Hayato something decent; he’s got to be irritated with their antics too. And maybe drop for Romario so he can do something about your frustrations, pipsqueak-Dino.”

“ _Reborn_.” He disconnects the line before Dino could protest the insinuation about the dynamics between him and his only Guardian, and turns back to Nana, ignoring lucky-Tsuna who was blatantly eavesdropping now.

“Do you have a futon you can roll out in lucky-Tsuna’s bedroom, Nana? I think that I will be giving Hayato the opportunity to earn his keep by guarding lucky-Tsuna at night rather than continuing to sleep in his room.”

“I can get one in the morning easily enough, Reborn; one of Iemitsu’s few positive points is how much money he sends for us. Now, dinner is a few minutes away, so put the book down, for now, Tsu-kun; there’s some more supplies to go with the book upstairs.”

“Hiiieee! Kaa-chan!”

“And Reborn and I need to have a very long conversation, Tsu-kun, so you’ll have plenty of time to read them. I’m just going to ask that your own come in through the front door, please, so I know how many to feed and whether it’s safe to open your bedroom door.” His student was scarlet, and the Flame of Dying Will mode glowed on his forehead. “I told you, Tsu-kun, o-nee-san was just like you, and as long as I don’t have to see anything a mother shouldn’t see, then I’m happy for you.”

Lucky-Tsuna headdesks and Nana makes an amused sound before heading back into the kitchen.

He gives Lucky-Tsuna time to recover himself and busies himself continuing to draft his paper, outlining what experiments he thought he might need to prove his points and the equipment and ‘ingredients’ that might be required. They both put their reading material down when Nana brings bowls full of ramen to the table for them, and the dinner is eaten in companionable (embarrassed) silence. “Um, I’m going to go upstairs, and uh, finish reading this -” Lucky-Tsuna holds up the book and flushes again, “- and Kaa-chan, I think I can feel Kyōya lurking, and I don’t think I can give him instructions yet.”

“Kasumi’s son is a force unto himself, Tsu-kun. If he shows up, I’ll tell him off in the morning.” His student squeaks again, but doesn’t protest, and flees upstairs. At least with the book he’s carrying, he can reduce the scope of the sex-ed Talk significantly, to just precautions to take against odd-ball things Mist Flames and their Earth-equivalents could do.


	16. Chapter 16

Lucky-Tsuna is asleep, cheeks still flushed, with the book that Nana had handed him still open on his chest, and he lifts it off and flicks through it wondering what sort of book she’d ordered her son. It was obviously self-published by someone, or from a small, word of mouth publisher, because it was informative and detailed with non-salacious diagrams, and omitted the normal biases about monogamy or heterosexuality; Lucky-Tsuna had fallen asleep on the page instructing him how to top someone without hurting them, and he snorts. The boy’s River would be entirely happy for him to practise those skills on him, and would probably be very appreciative if lucky-Tsuna made the first move.

He puts the book on lucky-Tsuna’s bedside table, alongside the small bag of supplies, and settles into his hammock in the corner of the room; he’d be relieved when his students arrived, and he could hand off the night-watch to Smokin’ Bomb. (Bodyguard to lucky-Tsuna would be a good way for the volatile boy to earn his keep and to ease him back into at least part-time education.) “Mmm. Takeshi -“ his student rolls over and he stuffs ear-plugs in his ears and pointedly ignores the sounds from the bed in favour of falling asleep; after the two-hour conversation he’d had with Nana and the earlier ‘argument’ with the pacifier, he was exhausted.

“Reborn-san, Tsu-kun! Breakfast!” He wakes with a start, almost toppling out of his hammock, confused as to how he’d slept past dawn, and Nana grins at both him and his student from the doorway. “If you don’t get out of bed soon, you’ll be late to school, and Kyōya-kun has already been past for a bentō; he would have woken you up, but something I said made him blush and slip away.” 

“Thank you, Nana. We’ll be down shortly.”

“Ara. I made you an Italian-style breakfast, Reborn-san; you’ll have to tell me how the pastries came out.” She shuts the door again, and his student looks between him and the book on his bedside table with a blush.

“Did you do something, Reborn? Kaa-chan has suddenly gotten a lot better. She’s being -“ his student waves his hands in frustration as he fails to find the right word. “And she seems to find me blushing cute?! I’m doomed to the two of you making me blush for your collective amusement, aren’t I?”

“Of course, lucky-Tsuna. Your Guardians will think your blushes are adorable, too.”

“Just don’t make me blush in front of, well, people I have to -“ his student waves his hands again, and he’ll have to work on his student’s vocabulary issues. “- unless they’re your students, too. I know better than to ask you not to make me blush in front of them. Just - make it equal opportunity, please?”

“Or what, lucky-Tsuna?”

“I’ll do my best to interfere in the way Kaa-chan is courting you, Reborn.” He blinks, half-stunned, and his student laughs and scoops up his clothes, slipping out of the room, presumably to get dressed in the bathroom. Nana, courting _him_? How would that work? He wasn’t a Sky, he _wasn’t_. 

“Reborn, are you coming down to breakfast, or can I eat all of Kaa-chan’s pastries myself?” Lucky-Tsuna’s head sticks back around the bedroom door, and he shakes his head, to try and clear the blue-screen of death. “Good. They smell delicious and I’m _hungry_!” He catapults himself out of his hammock and slams into his evil-minded student, bowling them both down the stairs (trusting that Lucky-Tsuna’s Flames would stop them from suffering more than bruises), and then bouncing up from the resulting sprawl on the floor to vault into the cushioned high chair.

“Ara! There’s enough pastries for everyone, Reborn. What did Tsu-kun do to deserve that?”

“He was trying to tease me, Nana.” Lucky-Tsuna pouts at him and then levers himself up from the floor.

“He started it, Kaa-chan!” His student settles into one of the other chairs, somewhat gingerly. “And that hurt, Reborn.”

“Of course it hurt; you were threatening to steal my pastries and my coffee, lucky-Tsuna.” Nana rolls her eyes at both of them, and puts a pile of pastries between them, and hands him an espresso. “No one gets between me and coffee.” One of his student’s hands darts out to steal a pastry, and he vacillates between slapping it away from the treats or drinking Nana’s coffee, and decides on the coffee. Holy, holy caffeine.

“Tou-san said the kimchi went down _really_ well last night, Nana-san, and he wondered if you wanted to spend some time with him in the kitchen? He has some ideas based on things he’s done with his Rain and Cloud Flames and food in the past.” He emerges from the fumes of his coffee to raise an eyebrow at his student’s River, who was leaning against the frame of the back door and looking at his pastries - or possibly his student - with avaricious eyes.

“Ara, Takeshi-kun, your tousan is just trying to flatter me! And come sit down; there’s plenty for everyone.” The River shakes his head.

“Perhaps another day, Nana-san; I have a bargain with Hibari-senpai to keep, and I don’t want to get bitten to the unfun sort of death before school.”

“Hiiieee, Takeshi -“

“Maa, maa, it’s just sparring and conditioning, Tsuna-koi. You can inspect me for bruises when you get to school though …”

“O-nee-san used to kiss bruises better, Tsu-kun.” His student buries his head in his hands and groans, and he tries one of Nana’s delightful looking pastries and hums in pleasure. “And I suspect Takeshi-kun would _thoroughly_ enjoy that.” As would his student he suspected, and Madre di Dio Nana was a good cook when she wasn’t stressed, but he wouldn’t be allowing the boys that indulgence, not yet. Dino and the others would be arriving at some point between lunch and evening meal, and then he’d throw to them to Shamal’s mercy - the man’s sexual health examination and lecture were terrifying - which ought to put them off indulging for a while. “But if you’re not going to join us for breakfast, Takeshi-kun, at least take the bento I made you as a post-sparring snack.”

The River scoops up the indicated bentō, dropping a kiss on his frozen student’s forehead as the suffix finally registers, and vanishes out of the front door. Given that the boy was fully armed - shinai, the tantō and some sort of charm that he didn’t recognise, a knot of Mist Flames hanging from the shinai’s saya - he and the Glacier were going to have a lot of fun, and probably wouldn’t do anything on the roof of the school other than fight. “I told you they’d find your blushes adorable, lucky-Tsuna.”

“Ara. Tsu-kun is like his oba-san; did you have a plan for tempting his Mountain closer, Reborn-san?”

“Some, Nana-san, but given that he’s going to be apprenticed to one of my former students, pulling him into lucky-Tsuna’s orbit will have to wait. And speaking of former students, did you get the private room booked for pipsqueak-Dino tonight?”

“Hiiieee! Another one, Reborn?!”

“You’ll have six eventually, lucky-Tsuna. Maybe more if you meet very specific criteria, -“

“Crushes are a good way to pick out potential companions for an Earth, Tsu-kun, though those crushes aren’t always sexual; O-nee-san had the most adorable academic-crush on her Glacier, for example.” He looks down at his plate and uses his Flames to hide his own blush; that wasn’t quite how he’d taught pipsqueak-Dino to find his Guardians (and Nana had used companions there, which was an interesting linguistic choice) and he had a burgeoning crush on Nana’s use of her Flames, and how she’d managed to make the best of an appalling situation. He manages another two of the pastries before his stomach starts to protest, and he grumbles at the limitation; he could happily eat the entire plate of them, especially if Nana kept plying him with coffee, too. Nana spots his reluctance to stop, and there’s a bentō placed next to him. “I thought Leon might be able to ‘carry’ these for you, Reborn-san, and there can be more in the morning, too.”

His chameleon licks the side of the bentō and it vanishes. Whether he’ll be able to get it _back_ from Leon is another question entirely. “Thank you, Nana.” He deliberately brushes his Flames - not the Sun, but the other tiny Flames he possesses - against hers, and she blushes at the gesture. “Lucky-Tsuna, it’s time to get to school unless you want Kyōya to nibble on you this morning.”

“Hiiieee!”

“Ara, Tsu-kun, you’d enjoy Kyōya-kun nibbling on you. Unless Reborn-san is trying to weaponise that squeak of yours -“

“- which I am; did you notice that flicker of Flame in it, Nana? I’m hoping for it to ‘pause’ people long enough for Lucky-Tsuna to escape or attack without needing to use the rather _final_ techniques he and his Forest seem to have devised.” His student buries his head in his arms again, and the gravity in the room flickers; he leans over and bops him on the head with a Leon-mallet. “Move it, lucky-Tsuna. Once you’re at school and at your River and Glacier’s mercy, I need to run some errands, as does Nana; if you delay us, then we’ll have to start your introduction to the others by making you blush.”

Lucky-Tsuna bolts, ramming his feet into his shoes, and he accepts the boy’s bentō from Nana and follows along behind; he’ll trip over soon enough, and then he’ll be able to catch up and hitch a lift. 

… lucky-Tsuna doesn’t make it to the end of the street before he falls over, and he hides a snicker. He was a mathematician with the ability to Activate. (It took a lot of Flames to make something unusual happen, but Apparently his student regularly tripped, possibly due to the way he made his personal gravity fluctuate? Or maybe given that Romario eased pipsqueak-Dino’s clumsiness, it had been the partially formed bonds?) He heals the boy’s knees and uses his Mist Flames to repair the tear in his trousers, and lucky-Tsuna doesn’t complain when he jumps up onto his shoulder. “You did that deliberately, didn’t you, Reborn.”

“What gave me away, lucky-Tsuna?” He was genuinely curious; it would make a useful starting point for training him in situational awareness. He weaves one hand into his student’s fluffy hair, and leans into the gentle Flames that were making his weight manageable for lucky-Tsuna.

“I’m glad I have Takeshi and Kyōya-senpai, Reborn. You’d have scorched me without them, I think.” Lucky-Tsuna’s not-answer doesn’t make sense to him immediately, and he tugs gently on his fluffy hair, making his student whine, but explain. Or at least _try_ to explain. “You’re a Sun, Reborn. Even if you hadn’t told me, I’d have known, I think, because you ‘feel’ like the summer sun, when it’s really bright and hot; and when you’re being mischievous, it feels like I’m about to be burnt. My skin feels hot and tight and I want to find shade.”

He hums thoughtfully. “And Tsuyoshi?”

“Like I’m out in the rain, though when he pulled on his Flames in the dojo, it was the sort of typhoon that would make any sane person want to seek shelter.” He’d have to make sure to introduce lucky-Tsuna to a variety of Flame users so that he got used to identifying the different Flames, especially those which people might try to use offensively against him. Shamal would make a useful trainer for that, with his very subtle uses of Mist and his relatively weak Flame. 

“Mmm. We’ll need to work on that skill, but it looks like you’re continuing to be _very_ lucky, lucky-Tsuna. The ability to sense Flame use is something that it normally takes months or even years to beat into my students, because it’s manifestation varies so much.” 

“Good morning, Kusakabe-senpai.” The pacifier and his student’s Flames were obviously hashing his own senses, or - he frowns, and that was an obvious use for Lightning Flames that as far as he was aware the entire Italian mafia had missed. 

“The Chairman and Yamamoto-kun are sparring up on the roof, …” The older boy trails off, obviously not certain how to refer to him, and he wonders what, exactly, Nana said to his student’s Glacier this morning.

“I wouldn’t mind Tsunayoshi-kun, Kuskabe-senpai. Did Kaa-chan say something to Kyōya-senpai this morning?”

“He walked into his office and started drafting a document, Tsunayoshi-sama -” his student flinches, but it’s so slight that the prefect ignores it, “- and made Yamamoto-kun wait until he was done and had dispatched it to his father before they went up to the roof to indulge in sparring.”

“Will they mind if I go up, Kusakabe-senpai?” The prefect snorts. 

“Knowing the Chairman, Tsunayoshi-sama, he’ll be _delighted_ to see you.”

“Hiiieee!”

“Please remind the Chairman that the third years are getting unruly and he was planning to bite them to death this morning.”

“Yes Kusakabe-senpai. Can I use the doors?”

“You are the Chairman’s, uh, Earth, Tsunayoshi-san; they should be even more responsive to you than they are to the committee.” His student blinks, and tilts his head.

“Did he say something, or is the bond that obvious, senpai?”

“He’s more grounded and stable, Tsunayoshi-sama; To those of us who’ve known him since he was tiny, the difference is startling.”

“Ah.” His student steps over to the door and inspects the frame, before stepping through and onto the roof. Viper would pay an absolute _fortune_ for the blueprints to the system, though he suspected it was some sort of Hibari family secret. The two Guardians were going at it hammer and tongs - or rather shinai and tantō to tonfa - when he opens his eyes, and it thoroughly amuses him to watch them fight, and judging by lucky-Tsuna’s Flames, it was amusing and arousing him his student, even if he would protest about them fighting. “Kyōya-senpai, Takeshi -“

The two of them froze, and he notes the blossoming bruises and the delighted grins. He vaults clear of lucky-Tsuna’s shoulder just in time to avoid being squashed, and he watches in amusement, giving them a few minutes to enjoy themselves, but cut in just as hands wandered further. “Kyōya, your Kusakabe is waiting for you to bite the third years to death; lucky Tsuna, you may kiss one bruise for each of your boys, and then you are to be sat in the classroom in time for first bell.” His student goes up onto tiptoes and kisses his Guardians’ bruised cheekbones with a blush, and he sees the hunger in both his River and Glacier’s eyes. He waits patiently until all three boys have left the roof before prodding Leon gently with Sun Flames. He’s _seen_ his companion lick a helicopter and he _really_ didn’t feel like walking. The little chameleon shifts, and hmm, which errand first; finding a stable was probably going to take the longest, and pipsqueak-Dino wouldn’t take advantage of Tsuyoshi unless the horses with him were safe and comfortable …


	17. Chapter 17

“Pipsqueak-Dino, I have stabling for the horses you managed to bring with you, and a host for you and your men; you will be staying with lucky-Tsuna’s … Cloud. He’s slightly more sociable than the average Cloud, but your men are to restrict themselves to the more public parts of the compound and the ‘Sky’ quarters or find themselves hospitalised, and you will be sparring with him daily, so I hope you’ve kept up with your training …” Pipsqueak-Dino makes a sound that’s probably supposed to be one of protest, but he ignores it in favour of waving the carrot under his Sky-student’s nose. “… but before young Kyōya demonstrates just how little practise you’ve been doing, you have a dinner date with your potential Rain.”

“ _Reborn_.” He snickers. “Where is this stabling you’ve found?” Unspoken is the question ‘and does it meet my exceedingly high standards’. Pipsqueak-Dino adored his horses ever so slightly more than his Famiglia, and the boy would be intolerable until they were in accommodation that met his standards.

“Lucky-Tsuna’s … Cloud has a control of the local yakuza; several of his men will meet you at the city limits and escort you to the compound. The two who will be meeting you are both Active Lightnings.”

“I think you broke the Boss, Reborn.” Romario’s voice sounded amused. “He’s pulling that ‘Santa Maria, what is Reborn dragging me into _this_ time’ face.”

“It’ll be fun, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy having company in minding your ridiculous Sky, Romario.”

“Providing they’re compatible with the Boss, I’m sure I will, Reborn. Given the Boss is still pulling that face, what do I need to know?“ He reels off the information, including the dinner date, the potential Lightning he’d found pipsqueak-Dino, and the identifying ‘signs’ for the two of Kyōya’s men who had been instructed to met the small convoy. ”If the GPS is right, we’re about forty-five minutes away from the city limits, Reborn -"

“It’s going to be amusing to introduce pipsqueak-Dino to lucky-Tsuna.” He allows his anticipation of the incipient chaos to seep into his voice, and Romario groans, and he’s fairly sure that the man shakes his head before actually answering out loud.

“No. I don’t want to know what sort of chaos you have planned, Reborn, but tell me this, is that lucky ironic in the same way as ‘pipsqueak’ is?” 

“Perhaps.” Romario sighs, but rather than question him further, choosing instead to disconnect the call, and he pouts. He’d been enjoying the teasing. What else did he need to do before the Cavallone convoy appeared? Tormenting lucky-Tsuna a little more appealed, and he did need to make sure that the silly boy remembered he was supposed to be practising kenjutsu with his River, rather than indulging in performative ‘incompetence’ in phys-ed. At least he had a number of gleeful co-conspirators in breaking lucky-Tsuna of those tendencies.

Leon shifts back from satellite phone to ’copter, his companion recognising that he was still exhausted.

He hops out of the Leon-’copter onto the school roof, and his student’s Glacier opens the door and glares at him. “I have given orders for unauthorised intruders in Namimori airspace to be shot down, taiyo-sama, and have set aside money to buy my committee anti-aircraft missiles.”

“Isn’t that a little over-the-top, Kyōya?”

“You are a very ‘noisy’ presence in my territory, taiyo-sama, and an open invitation to others like you to come and cause chaos. I would rather preempt it.” He sighs and rubs his temples. As much fun as he was having, this wasn’t the contract he’d been expecting, and yes he was making the two idiots pay for that through their noses, but he was still having to adjust to things on the fly and that was exhausting.

The Glacier offers him an arm, and he takes it, trusting that it was, in fact, an invitation rather than a trick. “My sky-student will be here soon, Kyōya; thank you for being willing to host him and his men.”

“Hn. If he is where I can monitor him, he will be less likely to disrupt my territory.” He thought that was optimistic, but he could follow the train of thought. “And if he is protective over his animals as your list of requirements for them indicated, he is at least likely to be acceptable company.”

“He needs to keep up his fighting abilities, so he’ll be available to spar with you on a daily basis.” The Glacier radiates a certain amount of delight at the promise. “Now has my newest student left the school to study with Tsuyoshi, or has he ‘forgotten’, Kyōya?”

“Hn. They have. I had to bite their classmates, taiyo-sama; the baby-sword-carnivore’s declaration that he would be withdrawing from phys-ed and his clubs in order to concentrate on his kenjutsu mastery made them unruly, and they attempted to crowd the small carnivore.” He sighs and finds his balance on Kyōya’s shoulder.

“Tsuyoshi said something about needing evidence for Touma; is that your father, Kyōya, or a cousin and how badly has Idiotsu caused me to annoy your clan?”

The Glacier actually snickers. “One of Chichi-ue’s cousins. He’s the Keishi-chō, taiyo-sama; as to the clan, they’re giving you a lot of leeway because the small carnivore is mine, and you’re his tutor, so the assumption is that I will discipline you, or seek their help, and until I do, they will remain hands off.”

“Keishi-chō?” The title seems familiar, but he can’t quite think of the translation.

“Head of the Prefecture’s Police, taiyo-sama.” He blinks. That explained why Tsuyoshi had wanted to have sufficient evidence to ‘frame’ the yakuza that had attempted to move into Namimori for the man. “He is a rather atypical Cloud.” He raises an eyebrow, and wonders which variety of atypical Kyōya means; after eighty-odd years of exposure to Skull, he’s not sure anyone has the base personality of a Cloud quite correct. He’d tried introducing Skull to pipsqueak-Dino, and the two of them had cackled but not bonded, and Skull had given him a betrayed look and then vanished like a typical Cloud when he’d asked him why.

“Do you need to stay here, Kyōya, or would you like to meet your guest and terrify the shit out of him?” If pipsqueak-Dino thought he'd been telling the truth about when he'd have to spar with Kyōya, then the boy was getting rusty.

“I thought that he was your student, taiyo-sama?”

“And if he doesn’t expect a low-grade prank from me, then he’s in dire need of a vacation, and I want an honest assessment of his readiness and training state.”

“Hn.”

“Providing I flare my Flames they won’t try and shoot you more than once each.” The Glacier made a grumbling sound. “Injuring his men will throw pipsqueak-Dino into a Rage almost as quickly as disconcerting his horses will, Kyōya, and I know what their training looks like; I designed the program Romario runs them through.”

The Glacier grins and allows his tonfa to slide down into his hands. He allows his own lips to curve into an answering smile and balances effortlessly on the boy’s shoulder as Kyōya slips back through the doors in the school, stopping in the Glacier’s outer office only long enough to hand over the committee to his senior minion. “Do you have a perch to wait near the stables, Kyōya? Given I want to know what pipsqueak-Dino’s _base_ state is, you need to wait for the horses to be safe before you attack.”

“Hn. Does he have anyone competent enough in his inner circle to notice and Activate territories?”

“Several. And given that it’s for their Boss’s horses, if they don’t I’ll kick their asses up and down the main street in Namimori, oi-chan.” The Glacier freezes for a moment and then resumes moving, and he resists the temptation to cackle; Fon would be highly disconcerted if he’d accustomed Kyōya to being referred to as his cute nephew. 

“Go greet your Sky-student, taiyo-jiichan, and I’ll bite him to death once his horses are safe.” 

He’s handed from Kyōya to the two waiting Lightnings that he’d warned Romario about, and the Glacier vanishes. He settles onto the back of one of the bikes, amused to find that the footpegs had been moved to allow for a chibified adult to sit comfortably. They drive a little way out of Namimori, along the road that pipsqueak-Dino and wait; the two Lightnings spread out their Flames, make themselves hard to ignore - more evidence that there was something for Verde to study in the way that Kyōya had his Flame using minions trained - and when there’s an answering protective Flare of Sky Flames which he answers, their bikes settle fore and aft of the small convoy, and guide them through the streets of Namimori to the compound. 

Kyōya only waits for the flare of the territory around the stable Activating - Romario’s work; he recognises the Flames - before he drops into the middle of pipsqueak-Dino’s perimeter, tonfa limed with icy white Flames and he flares his own in the established signal for ‘training’ and the Cavallone men warily stand down. (His original contract for training Dino had stringent conditions on it, ones that required him never to try and kill their Sky.)

“ _Reborn_!” Pipsqueak-Dino dodges the first blow but Kyōya connects with the second, and the reverberation in his Sky-student’s Flames tells him that Dino has been neglecting his sparring practices for at least a month. “Santa Maria, what the fuck did I do to deserve _this_?!” He raises an eyebrow as Sky Flames flow along the boy’s whip to match the Glacier’s. “I just answered your summons, Reborn.” He ducks under the third swing and then goes on the offensive, whip dancing in the air, and spreading his Flames through the immediate area. But Kyōya had a significant advantage over pipsqueak-Dino; Fon had obviously thoroughly trained his great-grandson. It would do his Sky-student good to face someone as overpowered as Kyōya on a semi-regularly basis. He’d also spend time snickering at the fact that despite his absence pipsqueak-Dino was still just as masochistic as he’d been during his original training; presumedly Romario was enjoying - and encouraging - that.

“I thought your Sky-student was supposed to be a challenge taiyo-jiichan.”

“I’ve been in negotiations for the past three weeks, -” Kyōya ties pipsqueak-Dino up with remarkable skill, and sits on his prisoner. Romario is doing a masterful job of concealing his amusement. “- and I’m still nursing a _bullet_ wound, Reborn.”

“Kyōya-senpai!” He raises an eyebrow as his newest student comes barrelling through the perimeter of Cavallone men, Takeshi behind him, hand on the tantō. “What did you _do_ , Kyōya-senpai?”

“Hn. Taiyo-jiichan asked me to test his Sky-student for him.”

“And you thought _agreeing_ to this was a _good_ idea, senpai?”

“Don’t worry about it; I enjoyed it. You have to be Tsunayoshi, right? Hi, I’m Dino, tenth Boss of the Cavallone.” He risks a glance at Romario who has his head in his hands; he’s not sure whether the man is laughing or crying. “I’d offer to shake hands, but I’m a little tied up right now.”

“Kyōya, untie Dino-san, please. And Reborn, I knew you were a troll, but _seriously_?!”

“Pipsqueak-Dino, _why_ are you nursing a bullet wound?”

“Because the damn thing is Hard to Heal.” 

“Kyōya.” There’s a snap of command in Lucky-Tsuna’s voice, and the boy’s Glacier unties his Sky-student, and he lays mental odds on what will happen next. “Thank you Kyōya; I think if you want to spar further, maybe you should go with Takeshi and ask Tsuyoshi if he’s willing to help? Them tag-teaming might give you the fight you want.” 

“Hn.” Lucky-Tsuna lays a hand on the Sky-Flame burn wrapped around Kyōya’s arm, and it vanishes; his newest student folds himself down into seiza, next to pipsqueak-Dino, and touches the blonde cautiously, but neither boy’s Flames are so tentative, and the resulting surge is blinding. The gravity fluctuates, and he has to blink away the eye-searingly bright Sky Flames. He feels the tug on his own Flames; it aches, but it isn’t enough to lure him in. He adores pipsqueak-Dino, but the boy already has a Sun he’s besotted with and while he’s strong, it isn’t Arcobaleno strong. When he can see again properly, pipsqueak-Dino is cuddling the fluffy little menace that’s his newest student, lucky-Tsuna not protesting about the way he’s wrapped up in his Sky-student’s arms. Kyōya, Takeshi and Romario all look dazed; he’s not surprised given the surge of Earth and Sky Flames and the fact that they had paths of least resistance for those Flames to surge along.

He snaps a photo for his collection; a teenage Fon looking dazed and Earth drunk would make Viper grin evilly. “He is my new otouto, isn’t he Reborn?”

“Yes, yes he is.” Pipsqueak-Dino snuggles lucky-Tsuna to him. “Where did you leave the luggage and your senpai and kohai, pipsqueak-Dino?”

“Mmm. Shamal and Bianchi haven’t been untied and removed from the vehicle I transferred them to, and Hayato - who is surprisingly adorable when being molested by my horses - is in the stable because the mares are refusing to let him out of their sight right now.” Lucky-Tsuna wriggles around in pipsqueak-Dino’s lap and his Sky-student pinks.

“Was this what you were hoping would happen, demon-Reborn?”

“Perhaps. Now sit still, pipsqueak-Dino, and let me check that bullet hole you were whining about before lucky-Tsuna’s ‘Cloud’ decides to chew on you again.” 

“Kyōya’s gone to play with Takeshi and Tsuyoshi, Reborn.” He smiles; his student had gotten the inflexion on that just right, and he watches Takeshi drag a reluctant to leave Kyōya away. “And when you’ve fixed Dino-nii ’s bullet wound, he is going to come and have afternoon tea and be introduced to Kaa-chan and we’re going to _explain_.” He pouts at his newest student. “You’ll have a lot of fun winding everyone up, Reborn, even if I take this bit of it away from you.”

Pipsqueak-Dino had a look of confusion on his face, and the shirt he was wearing pushed off his shoulder - and, he noticed, lucky-Tsuna still in his lap, one arm wrapped around him - to show a livid circle of red in a pure white dressing. “I’m sure I will, lucky-Tsuna. Now sit still, pipsqueak-Dino, and hug your new toy; this is probably going to hurt.” Pipsqueak-Dino flicks his eyes to Romario, and the boy’s Sun hustles the others away, muttering reassurances about being in an allied Cloud’s core territory and Japanese hospitality rules and several other things that he doesn’t quite hear; he’s concentrating on the wound that’s revealed when the bandage is peeled away, and he lets a soft curse slip. Sky Flames are blocking the spread of the foulness in the wound, but there’s something invidious radiating from the raw hole. “What happened when one of your doctors tried to remove the bullet, Dino?”

“It latched into my flesh. I’ve got the nerves numbed, and it contained, but I was hoping that you’d be able to help, Reborn.”

“Mhmm. You didn’t ask Shamal?”

“It seemed like a bad idea.”

“I think that you’re going to need to help, lucky-Tsuna; let’s see what happens when you pull the foreign object in there out. I _know_ you’ve got enough fine control to do it, and given the way two of you have already started to bond, he trusts you enough - speaking of which, Dino, we need to have a conversation about that.”

Flames curl around the three of them, and pipsqueak-Dino gritted his teeth, and then the fragments of the bullet, redolent with Mist and Lightning Flames, ricocheted out of the hole in Sky-student’s shoulder and hung in mid-air. The wound healed relatively easily with the foreign object removed, and then he turned to the bullet fragments, and touched one with a long Leon-rod; it attempted to bind itself to his companion, but Leon shifted back too quickly to allow it to latch on. “If someone can get something I can put this in, I think it’s safest if I hold it like this.” Romario whistles sharply and makes a gesture, and he was going to need to interrogate his Sky-student as to what he’d been up to that his men were carrying Flame-proofed canisters; he’d challenged him to work on cleaning up certain aspects of the Mafia, but between the bullet wound and the canisters, there was a story. One of the men came running with one, and lucky-Tsuna dropped the pieces in, wrapped in a small fragment of his Flames so they wouldn’t touch the sides of the canister. “Thank you Cavallone-san. I think that Verde might need to have a look at it, Reborn.”

“Agreed. Now. I think Dino should take me with him to untie Shamal and Bianchi, and you should go and retrieve Hayato from the mares, and we’ll meet at your Kaa-chan’s, lucky-Tsuna.” He has to prod the boys into moving with his Flames, but they do, lucky-Tsuna moving cautiously in the direction of the stables, Flames still licking over his newest student’s form, and Dino picks him up with a sigh, and deflects his questions while they cross the compound to the vehicles. Hmph. Perhaps he'd have to leave the interrogation until _after_ Tsuyoshi had unwound the silly boy.


	18. Chapter 18

The first thing he does when he gets to the vehicle with Shamal and Bianchi tied up in the back is shoot the pair of them with rubber bullet each - they had both missed that their fellow student was nursing a bullet wound, after all - before he even thinks about untying them. “Good work with the bindings, Dino; you’ve obviously been paying attention to how Romario ties you up when he’s making you look after yourself.”

“ _Reborn_!”

“Okay, okay, I know what I did to earn being tied up, but what the fuck did I do to deserve a rubber bullet _that_ close to my cock, Reborn?”

“No more poison-cooking around your horses, I _promise_. Now would you untie me, please, Dino? And then explain how you managed to prevent me from rotting the ropes?” His Sky-student leans in and brushes a finger against Bianchi’s bindings, and they immediately disintegrate, visibly rotting in less than a second, and his only female student stretches in relief, and takes the hand pipsqueak-Dino offers her.

“What’s the property of Sky-Flames, Bianchi?” She facepalms, and they walk off a short distance to allow him to shout at Shamal in a certain amount of privacy. He jumps up onto his senior student’s chest, and Shamal smacks his head back into the floor of the van.

“What did I miss?”

“The bullet wound that pipsqueak-Dino’s been concealing for at least a _fortnight_.”

“Fuck. Why didn’t the idiot -” he bops Shamal’s nose gently with a rolled-up Leon-newspaper, “- damnit, he is an idiot if he hid it from me, Reborn! Why didn’t he say something about it so I could fix the damn thing? And while I’m being punished for missing that, why the fuck hadn’t his Sun fixed it? Romario’s not that powerful, but the way the kid boosts him, he’s more than capable of it.”

“Because you and Verde and one of lucky-Tsuna’s … companions need to take a look at the bullet and I need to interrogate pipsqueak-Dino about what exactly he tried to bite off and chew this time, and what his well-armed target did to raise his ire.”

“And the rubber-bullet?”

“Lucky-Tsuna has the most ridiculous luck and an aversion to being shot at for some reason - which I will be taking out of Idiotsu’s hide at the first possible opportunity - and you were a handy target.” Bianchi makes a high-pitched noise that he recognises as her ‘I’ve seen something too cute for _words_ ’ sound, and he turns his head to see lucky-Tsuna emerging from the stable block with her little brother, both of them looking ruffled and covered in hay, and with a pair of mares following along behind them. Something about the situation has pipsqueak-Dino laughing hysterically and he burns off Shamal’s bindings and hops off the man’s chest to watch what happens next.

The silver-pale mare lips at lucky-Tsuna’s hair in a manner even he recognises as affectionate (training pipsqueak-Dino had taught him more equine body language than he’d ever wanted to know) and Hayato - Bianchi’s little brother - squeaked and tried to draw the mare off only to be thwarted by the dappled chestnut who he’d met twice when he was still training and who had tried to trample him on both occasions gripping what was probably the back of his shirt. “Surrender, otouto; the reason Rossa - the chestnut - is with me in Japan - despite being one of my lead mares - is that she was certain that her person was here. Gioia - the silver - agreed, which when Bianchi and Shamal admitted what their special luggage was, made more sense.” He turned a raised eyebrow on Dino who flushed.

“If you can talk to your horses, pipsqueak-Dino, that’s a new skill and one you should have shared.”

“It’s not quite _talking_ to them, Reborn, -”

“”- I don’t care if they’ve adopted us as their ‘people’ Cavallone, she’s trying to pick me up by my _belt_. She’s already tried _twice_!"

“My horses are clingy when they’ve just found their person, Hayato. I blame the fourth; he and his Mist got creative in their breeding programme, but no Cavallone’s been assassinated while out riding one of our horses since. I suspect all you need to do is promise her that you’ll come to visit her every day and teach Tsuna how to _ride_.” Hayato flushes and there’s an outraged ‘Hiiieee’ from lucky-Tsuna.

“He’s a Storm, safe enough for you to experiment with lucky-Tsuna; one variable is quite enough to deal with, and your doctor is here, now.”

“ _Reborn!_ ”

“You know I didn’t mean _that_ , Reborn.”

“He’s a troll, and both of you are feeding him, brats.” The chestnut mare drops Hayato, and the boy turns, huffs and then gently rubs her nose.

“Silly girl; of course I’ll teach him how to ride you, and how to fight from horseback.” He raises an eyebrow at Dino.

“Gioia was originally bred and bought for Aquila di Falco, Reborn. It took me a while to remember, but when I saw how she insisted on treating him like an errant foal, it clicked.” It takes him a moment, too; Aquila di Falco didn’t ring a bell - but then he’d only ever known the boy as Hayato Gokudera. The Falco had been too small a Family for him to have been interested in, and Bianchi had introduced her little brother as Hayato when she begged him and Shamal to help him about three years back. “He was tiny, and terrified of her despite the fact that she wasn’t fully-grown yet, but the two of them clicked. I don’t think he remembers her though.”

He’s not sure whether Hayato hears their conversation; the chestnut mare still has his full attention, and he snickers when he realises that the two mares are making a valiant effort to herd the boys back towards the stable. “I think you might need to stage an intervention, Dino.”

“Agreed. It’s adorable, but if Tsuna’s willing to try and ride herd on your sense of chaos, I probably should rescue him before you feel the need to get up to more mischief.” His Sky-student strides forward, buttoning his shirt back up. “Gioia, Rossa, into the loose box, girls; I promise to make sure the boys come back to tend to you, but you know what Reborn’s like -” pipsqueak-Dino’s body-language shifts, and his Flames curl and waver in the air, warm and soothing. The mares still attempt to refuse him, but Tsuna turns his thousand mega-watt smile on the pair of them, and they allow Dino to catch fingers into their halters and guide them back into the stables. Another layer of a Mist-territory comes up and his Sky-student reappears, though not without stomping hooves and an annoyed whinny. “Apparently I need to talk to Kyōya about his Family’s history with horses; there are some impressive defensive workings on that stable, including one intended to keep anything equine in the stable unless there’s a fire or other similar emergency.”

“I’m sure lucky-Tsuna will be willing to referee such a conversation, pipsqueak-Dino.” Shamal, perverted idiot that he is, with sex permanently on the brain waggles his eyebrows and he whacks him with the rolled-up Leon-paper again. “Shamal, I _know_ you know how to behave responsibly; everyone here is either related to you, your teacher, or one of your co-students.” The Mist doctor pouts at him. “Let me remind you that you’re here as a doctor, brat, not an assassin.”

“Maa, maa.”

“Grandfather -” Bianchi’s gotten _good_ at the verbal game; even he winces at how well she just twisted the knife she’d planted in Shamal’s side. “- play nice.”

“You don’t get to use that one on me, Bianchi; you’ve only known I’m your grandfather for the last six hours, and you’re just as bad with a pretty woman.”

"Take that _back_. I only go after women who _consent_ to being flirted with!"

"And you think they don't consent to _me_ flirting with them?"

Lucky-Tsuna rolls his eyes and mouths something at pipsqueak-Dino, and he lets his lips twitch into a smile. Goal one achieved; the most important of his former students had accepted lucky-Tsuna as the newest member of their little grouping. “Mamma’s waiting for us, and she’s probably been baking, and you wouldn’t want to disappoint her, would you?”

And oh, Idiotsu had missed so much by not visiting his son, and he wasn’t going to regret stealing the boy’s loyalties at all; he, at least, hadn’t missed the deliberately use of the Italian ‘Mamma’ to manipulate his fellow students. It works though, even on him, though he’ll protest that it’s just because he knows that a disappointed Nana produces poison cooking rather than the delicious fare she’s been plying him with over the last couple of days. At some point in the walk towards Nana’s house - escorted by a mixture of Cavallone men, and Kyōya’s minions - lucky-Tsuna catches up Hayato’s hand, and he smiles to himself; the fireworks there were going to be _fascinating_.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things have been edited and moved around; I made a mistake when uploading chapter 18, but here's the rest of 19 early as compensation, as part of it had already been posted.

“Of course you found a whole new Flame spectrum, Reborn.” He glares lazily at pipsqueak-Dino, who shrugs and grins at him from the position he’d flopped into on the couch; lucky-Tsuna was leant into his side, with Hayato sat on the floor at the boy’s feet. “It’s karma for all the chaos you cause.”

“Hmph.”

“He’s right, you know -”

“It’s more karma for misreading Daniela’s intentions.” Shamal, the only one of the group who knows precisely what he means, and who has had to deal with his guilt-induced insistence that he checks on his former paramours’ offspring flinches.

“What did Timoteo do _this_ time?”

“Lucky-Tsuna, Shamal and Dino need to take a look at your Flames.” His newest student’s Flames roll out for him, swelling to fill the house, and this time he looks for the damned Seal on the mental plane that’s how he senses and interacts with Flames, a legacy of his Mist secondary. (There’s a stab from the pacifier as it reacts badly to the use of a Flame it isn’t attuned to, be he ignores it by dint of long practice.) 

He almost misses it; lucky-Tsuna’s Flame-scape is far richer than that of the other Sealed individuals he’s met, and their Seals had been whole, their Flames too weak to damage them. There are too many shadows though, and he turns his Sun on one of them and finds a piece of the Seal, decayed and worn, but still poisonous. He shuts his eyes, shaking his head; he wasn’t going to try destroying one without preparing lucky-Tsuna for the scorching heat of his Flames.

He _feels_ it when pipsqueak-Dino loosen his grip on his Flames; his sky-Student doesn’t do it very often, cautious about revealing the full strength of his Flames. (Habit that he’d never broken the boy of.) The Sky Flames ripple and race across the flamescape, bringing with them Romario’s gentle Sun and making the shattered shards of the Seal bright and obvious and then Shamal’s Flames interpose themselves before they can latch onto the new Flame source and reform themselves. The Sky Flames withdraw, followed by Shamal’s Mist, and then he forces himself to leave the flamescape.

Dino and Tsuna look blissed out when he opens his eyes again, and he’s almost as amused as Romario is at the sight. "Does he look like that when you …?

“I thought you didn’t want to know details.”

“So he does.”

“ _Reborn_!”

“You know, if Cavallone makes _that_ face …”

“… _Shamal_!”

“Are they always like this, Reborn-san?” Nana leans over him to place a new plate of cookies on the low table they’re sat around, brushing her Flames against his again. 

“First time I’ve put all three of them in the same place at the same time, but when they’re relaxed, yes. Though I should have realised Bianchi and Shamal were related; they bicker in just the same way.”

“Want to take a break from the bickering? I saw how you winced when you were fighting the pacifier.” He nods, and she picks him up, leaving the others to wind each other up and Dino and Tsuna to lean each other, giggling and inebriated. 

“Can you remember any family lore about why or how Earths and Skies can bond, Nana?”

“I feel like I should remember _something_.” He nibbles on another one of her cookies, and hums thoughtfully. “So much of the lore I learned about Flames was in the form of kami-stories, silly things that could pass as the product of the imagination if you were spending time on the main islands and slipped.”

“Let’s try something, Nana. I want you to close your eyes, and let me talk you through telling some of those stories.” He weaves Sun and Mist Flames around himself and she makes a small sound when he settles himself into her lap and leans into her, her arm wraps around him. 

“I missed this feeling, Reborn. Tsuna was such an adorable little thing, warmth and safety, soothing to cuddle.” Her eyes are still open, and he touches a small hand to her face, and she comes back from the memory.

“Shhh. Close your eyes, Nana. We need to go further back, maybe ten or twelve, and babysitting one of your cousins. What sorts of stories would you be telling them?” She’s not quite all the way back into the right mindset, and he resorts to pulling on the nameless secondaries that’s started to surface, and its brush against her Flames does the trick. 

Nana babbles stories at him, about Amaterasu and her gifts, and her relationship with Sarutahiko, Yuki-onna, the kappa and tanuki, and he sorts through them, encouraging her to keep telling the stories while he pulls them apart for the bits that could be flame lore. He withdraws his Flames carefully from her, waking her from the induced regression slowly and carefully. He’s at least a little bit relieved when she doesn’t pull back from him; it’s a form of comfort he rarely lets himself have. “Did the stories tell you anything useful, Reborn-san?”

There’s a loud resounding crash from the living area before he can answer her; and she stands up, slightly wobbly, with him still in her arms and carries him through the house, so that the two of them can investigate. Bianchi’s sat on Shamal’s chest, the Mist looking disconcerting by the fact he has his granddaughter’s hand at his throat, and a piece of poison cooking about to be smashed into his mouth, and Romario had Dino’s head in his lap, the blond asleep with Tsuna on his chest.

“They did. And Bianchi, while I wouldn’t have any argument with Patricide, Senicide is a little beyond the pale; you know my rules.”

“He broke them _first_. And it won’t kill him, just give him whisky dick.” 

“No using poison cooking on your fellow students, Bianchi. Especially not when I have a use for him and a punishment detail.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, and would you _please_ get off me, brat; you’re sitting on my fucking _chest_ , and I’m still working on internalising the fact that _you’re my fucking granddaughter_.”

“You were _perving_ on our hostess.” He whaps Bianchi’s hand with a Leon-staff and she allows the poison-cooking to vanish into the space she summoned it from to allow her to suck her hand and look betrayed at Reborn.

“And you’re besotted, Bianchi. Unless he started described _exactly_ what he would do to her in private, that’s normal for him.” They’re speaking in rapid-fire Italian; both Bianchi and Shamal had adequate Japanese, but he needed to sit down and implant more idioms and technical terms for them. 

“Reborn-san, you’re being rather rude; I have a little Italian from Iemitsu, but you’re speaking a dialect I don’t understand. Is there a reason?” Her Flames flex and curl against his, and he wonders how the hell Iemitsu had missed that his wife had an Active Flame. “Perhaps, as I can feel there are several Mist constructs in the room, and given Bianchi-chan has a Swamp Flame, albeit a poorly trained one, I should fetch one of my frying pans so that I’m armed too?”

“No need, beautiful.” 

“ _Poorly-trained_?!”

“Bianchi-chan, I can see that your food is _purple_ , and I haven’t produced food that colour since I was fourteen, sweetheart.” Bianchi actually _blushes_ and shifts off Shamal’s chest. “It has to be tricky getting people to eat it while it looks like that; Reborn told me you were a named hitwoman though, so you must be _very_ skilled?” (Nana was using the information he’d given on each of his students with the sort of aplomb that suggested she’d have made Iemitsu a skilled helpmate if he’d been willing to brief her into their world.)

“So _smitten_.” Bianchi’s fingers flex at the murmured words - fortunately in Italian, because he didn’t want to explain to Nana that two of his students were competing for her - from Shamal, and his hand snaps out to restrain her from ramming the suddenly resummoned poison cooking into his mouth.

“Why don’t you join me in the kitchen, Bianchi-chan, so I can show you how to control those Flames of yours; there are ways they can be exceedingly useful in cooking.” His single female student is a completely incoherent mess, and he’ll have to ask if there’s a way that the Hibari can expedite a divorce; Bianchi would spend _months_ torturing herself otherwise. Nana sweeps Bianchi off into the kitchen, and he turns a pointed glare on the second most senior of his students. Shamal at least has the dignity to blush.

“ _Nothing_ coming out of that kitchen is going to be edible tonight, and I was looking forward to Nana’s food.” Shamal twitched and Hayato made a small, disbelieving sound. “You get to play target for me in the morning, Shamal, and if I manage to hit you, you’re joining Dino in his remedial training.”

“Um, Reborn? You’re letting someone with Flames like sorella’s near _food_?”

“Nana’s an excellent cook, Hayato. She may even manage to teach Bianchi to make edible food again. And you’ll get plenty of opportunities to test her cooking; you’re going to be playing bodyguard to the fluffy brat currently asleep on pipsqueak-Dino.”

Hayato blinks at him. “You’re trusting me with the Vongola _Heir_?!” The boy’s voice rises on the last word.

“His school’s safe enough, especially given his Cloud-equivalent rules it with an iron fist, but you know the normal rules about keeping Dons and their heirs safe -” left unspoken is the fact that Hayato himself would have had a guard when he was still Aquila di Falco, “- and he’s going to more comfortable with you watching over him at night, rather than me; especially as he’s just discovering his hormones and well -” he gestures at his chibi-form, “- this form is a little inhibiting.”

“I’d be honoured, Reborn.” Also left unspoken was the proviso that he wasn’t being set up to fail; not that he’d do that to the boy - Shamal seemed to be genuinely attached, and the Misty-doctor might actually manage to kill him - at most he was setting him up to introduce lucky-Tsuna to a variety of things he was ill-suited to teach him. 

“Good. Nana promised to acquire you a futon for you to sleep in lucky-Tsuna’s room; given Nana’s dragged your sister into the kitchen, I think the rest of us should decamp for Takesushi, and see if we can get dinner there. I suspect that pipsqueak-Dino will, uh, provide the entertainment, if I’ve made an accurate assessment of his compatibility with Tsuyoshi Yamamoto.”

“At least you’re being an equal opportunity troll, I suppose. Flip a coin for who gets to wake the sleeping princesses?"


	20. Chapter 20

“I was only expecting Don Cavallone and his consigliere, Reborn.”

“Nana dragged Bianchi into the kitchen after telling her that she was a Swamp and poorly-trained and they were going to do something about that.” Tsuyoshi laughs.

“I think we can accommodate you, though I was planning on taking my potential sky upstairs for a little _extra_ privacy.”

“There’s nothing stopping you from doing that at the appointed time.” Lucky-Tsuna, the only one able to follow their rapid Japanese was shaking his head and laughing, but he noticed that the boy wasn’t translating so had obviously decided after his intervention early that he was allowed a certain amount of chaos, or that trying to prevent _all_ of it was a futile exercise. “We weren’t after sushi; perhaps katsudon?”

“Kaa-chan bought two new futon, Tsuyoshi-sensei; one for Hayato-kun, but that leaves one unoccupied, so that means Takeshi could sleep over …” his student was getting adorably confident, and Hayato had more Japanese than he was letting on, given the way the boy was visibly resisting the urge to facepalm. He also notices that while Dino was paying attention to Tsuyoshi, he wasn’t visibly smitten, but then again Tsuyoshi was keeping a tight grip on his Flames, so it was possible he supposed that the boy hadn’t picked up on their compatibility yet, because he was still reeling from how he and lucky-Tsuna had bonded.

“You’re picking up bad habits from your sensei, Tsunayoshi-chan. Did you send Kyōya over to spar with me earlier?” The Rain is amused, and picks up the seating plan of the restaurant, checking each of the private rooms.

“It was more to spar with Takeshi, Tsuyoshi-sensei. Did he get a bit rambunctious?”

“It’s just as well there’s a Sun in town who owes me a favour or three.”

“Ouch, I’m sorry, Tsuyoshi-sensei.”

“I can rearrange things a little and put you all in the largest of my private rooms, if you’re willing to let Kyōya and Takeshi join your group, Tsunayoshi-chan, Reborn?” Rain Flames curl out from beneath the older swordsman’s skin, and Romario steps forward, into the conversation, while Tsuna steps back, Earth Flames smoothly - though probably unintentionally - intercepting the attempt to test Dino’s responsiveness. 

Romario’s Japanese is stilted, but that doesn’t stop the Sun from making himself understood. “Yamamoto-san, if you could save flirting with my Sky until we have a little more privacy, please? He’s already a little drunk from what happened earlier with the little Vongola, and you’re _very_ much his type.” Tsuyoshi’s Flames vanish beneath his skin again, and that has to have been a very useful skill to have in his previous career. 

“If you follow me, I’ll get you set up and send Takeshi and Kyōya to join you; I wasn’t expecting yourself and Don Cavallone for another two hours though, so I’m still waiting for the bluefin tuna I ordered to be delivered.” Tsuyoshi leads their entire group into the back of the restaurant and brushes a hand over a panel on the wall; the small room reshapes itself, and the swordsman makes a gesture. “Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll get Takeshi and Kyōya to bring drinks in; send my silly boy back out when you’re ready to order food.”

Romario prods pipsqueak-Dino over to one corner, the silly boy half-crashed, and far more out of it than he’s seen him since he Activated Romario and tricked the Sun into taking ‘care’ of his Don and Sky, and Tsuna follows, obviously still feeling like he needed to stay close to pipsqueak-Dino to protect him in some way. (He was just relieved that that bond at least didn’t seem to be so sexually charged as the others; pipsqueak-Dino was a very specific type of handful he wasn’t sure lucky-Tsuna was up to handling.) Hayato, still trying to figure out how he should fulfil the role he’d just handed him, tries to sit close-but-not-too-close until he’s pulled closer, lucky-Tsuna murmuring something to him that makes him squeak, and he, himself, settles into a pile of convenient cushions, Shamal sitting cross-legged close by.

“Are you seriously considering pipsqueak-Dino, Shamal, or was that a tease, earlier?”

“A little bit of both, Reborn.” Shamal stretches, loosening tight shoulders. “Between the experimental bullet and the way he hid the bullet wound and Romario’s admission - well, I’ve always dodged Skies before, but I can sort of see myself as his Mist.” 

The door starts to creak open, and Leon darts down from his fedora to his hand, but the words make it clear who is opening the door, “Small carnivore, Sky-herbivore, taiyo-jiichan.” and their tone makes it clear that Kyoya had gotten what he wanted from the spar lucky-Tsuna had ordered him away to.

“Oh, he’s pretty, Tsuna -” Kyōya’s hand snaps out and whacks Takeshi - though not with a tonfa - over the back of the head, “- Don Cavallone brought an _excellent_ gift as thanks for being allowed into you and Kyōya-senpai’s territory.”

“Hiiieee! _Takeshi!_ ” 

(Hayato had to have followed the Japanese given he was once again scarlet; it was adorable.)

“He wasn’t a gift from Dino, Yamamoto-kun; his sister was the one who demanded we bring him along.” Shamal was playing a game, and he narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out what his bratty Mist student was up to.

“You’re up to _something_ , Trident Shamal.” He murmurs, choosing English for the words.

“I’m a Mist, Reborn. I’m always up to _something_.” Shamal settles back into position, with a cup of sake from the tray of drinks Takeshi had brought in in his hand. “Given the way that you matchmake, I don’t think you’ll object too strenuously.” He doesn’t answer and the two of them fall silent to listen to the other conversations going on in the room. 

“Hayato-kun, Takeshi and Kyoya, my River and Glacier, apparently; Takeshi, Kyoya, Reborn says that Hayato is my new bodyguard. I think Reborn’s decided he’d rather not sleep in my bedroom with well, _everything_.” Kyoya, the brat that he is - and most definitely Fon’s blood; the man hadn’t earned the title Eye of the Storm for _just_ his martial arts prowess - leans down and steals a kiss from lucky-Tsuna, making Hayato colour again. “Not that I don’t appreciate the kiss Kyoya, but why?”

“Hn. The new herbivores need to know that you’re _my_ mate, small carnivore, and if they can’t cope with me biting them to death, they don’t get to touch.”

“I didn’t give you permission to drop, Boss; that’s not the skill set you’re here to share with Tsunayoshi -“ Dino leans into his Sun’s side and the man sighs and lets a hand ruffle his Sky’s hair. “- I’d tell you that you’re more trouble than you’re worth, brat, but you’d insist demonstrating that you’re aren’t, and Kyoya thrashing you in a fight didn’t help, did it?” Kyoya looks smug at that, and he’s thoroughly amused at how well lucky-Tsuna and his set are sliding into the dynamic between his students. (He was still feeding Idiotsu and baka-Timoteo their eyeballs, though.)

He’s thoroughly amused by the puppy pile - which does include pipsqueak-Dino - that develops, and the quiet interrogation of Hayato by lucky-Tsuna’s senior ‘companions’, and Shamal leans forward and pours himself another cup of the sake. “So I assume that the little Vongola’s peculiar Flames were the reason I was so peremptorily summoned, Reborn?”

“Most of it. According to what Idiotsu and baka-Timoteo have _admitted_ -” which he was fairly sure wasn’t the entire _truth_ , but he wasn’t going to get the rest of the truth - like whether lucky-Tsuna had been fully Active when they Sealed him; he was leaning towards yes - out of that pair of idiots unless he headed back to Italy and tortured it out of both of them. “- they Sealed lucky-Tsuna at five. I’m fairly sure that he was Active at the time, and there’s been side effects as a result. You’re here because I didn’t want the sort of situation that Bianchi ended up suffering through.”

“Not dating men has helped a lot with that issue though; I don’t think she’s accidentally killed a sexual partner for over a year, has she?” 

“Two suitors that wanted the dowry her father had promised, but no partners she’d have chosen.” Which he considered entirely justifiable; Don Falco hadn’t taken ‘no’ for an answer, wanted his daughter to marry someone he considered suitable, had refused to consider IVF and the other possibilities. “And between that, and Hayato finally being healthy, I think she’s doing a lot better.”

“I’m going to have to write the technique up now; the virus has finished rewriting the DNA in the organs, and he’s not on any medication now. Whether anyone else will take me up on it, given how generally terrified they are of my viruses is another matter.” Hayato’s half asleep, leaning against lucky-Tsuna’s thigh, and if he hadn’t been so sure the boy was a Storm would make him think that the boy was already bonding with his Earth-student. 

“Romario, m’hungry.” The other Sun in the room chuckles and ruffles his Sky’s hair. “No, m’serious. Hadn’t eaten since, um, Aomori?” Takeshi unfolded himself from the corner of the pile he’d buried himself in and stretches, yawning. “I’ll go see if tou-san has the bluefin tuna yet, or if he’s got plans for anything else to feed the rest of us, and a snack for you, Dino-san.” Tsuna’s hands in Hayato’s hair stop the silver-haired boy helping, and Kyōya was fast asleep on a ledge that seemed perfectly designed for the Glacier. Takeshi pouts at them all, and then vanishes out the door.

“I’m going to spank you later, Boss.”

“Promises, promises, Romario.”

“Urgh, more than I wanted to know.”

“S’pretty image, Hayato-kun. You think Takeshi might like that Kyōya-senpai?”

“Better than the mental image of your sister seducing Nana-chan.” Hayato whines and turns his head at Shamal’s interjection, and there’s a high-pitched ‘Hiiieee’ as he accidentally buries his head in lucky-Tsuna’s groin.

“Hn. The baby-sword-carnivore will like whatever you do to him, small carnivore.” He snickers and Shamal gives him a wry glance, shifting and settling in a new position, and he shuts his eyes, letting the gentle back and forth roll over him, ignoring the actual words in favour of another peek at the flamescape of the group. Lucky-Tsuna’s provide a stable basis, a steady low thrum that calls to something in his bones; pipsqueak-Dino’s lighter, more ethereal Flames warm and welcoming, and the others fitting in, making the scene more complete (but still incomplete) and Leon shifts in his hand, and he types a text message absently; excluding lucky-Tsuna’s Forest from the ‘party’ would be cruel. 

It doesn’t take that long for the Forest to join them, but he still makes it into the room before Takeshi returns with food; lucky-Tsuna pulls the tiny red-head down into the puppy pile, and he raises an eyebrow as Hayato starts to pet him gently. “I bring katsudon for everyone, and tou-san has the bluefin tuna, Dino-san, so once I’ve put the tray down, he wants me to escort you, Romario, and Shamal-san upstairs; something about sharing the bounty?” Pipsqueak-Dino buries his head in lucky-Tsuna’s hair, blushing furiously, but Romario pokes him up, out of the pile, and Shamal stretches and stands too, giving Dino an appraising look that has the Sky Flames in the room fluttering and greedy, desperate for what the Mist has apparently been tempting him with. (Which would explain part of why Dino had been frustrated enough to tie both Shamal and Bianchi up, en route; he’d been wondering what had the boy so wound up.) Takeshi leads the three men out of the room, presumedly up the stairs, though he doesn’t bother to track them through the restaurant, and the pile of bodies opposite him reorganises itself into four boys, though still leaning companionably close to each other.

“Sho-chan, don’t make me feed you.” The little redhead squeaks and blushes furiously and picks up his chopsticks, and Hayato acquires a thoughtful look, and if he didn’t _know_ that the boy was a Storm, he’d think he was settling into lucky-Tsuna’s set. Maybe he’d have to see if Dino might be open to Hayato joining his set, alongside Haru, or if at least he’d be willing to ‘pretend’ that that had happened; that way the boy would be protected against Don Falco trying to do anything … Stupid. “And have you been sleeping enough? You have shadows under your eyes, Sho-chan.” 

“Of course I have, Tsu-kun.”

“Mhmm. We’ll pull my mattress down onto the floor too, and pile up, Sho-chan. All five of us.” There’s another meep from Hayato, and lucky-Tsuna looks up at him. “Just comfort, Reborn. I need them all within reach.”

“Lucky-Tsuna, for all he’ll be distracted tonight, the doctor I wanted you to wait for is here now, your mother has lectured me and Verde has seeded the town with so many sensors that he’ll know if one of Shamal’s mosquitos _sneezes_ ; if you want to _slowly_ start experimenting, I’m not going to stop you.” Kyōya, little troll that he is, smirks, and fishes a choice morsel out of his bowl, and presses it to lucky-Tsuna's lips. His student eats it obligingly, maintaining eye contact with him until he swallows, and he rubs his temples and sighs at the memories invoked.

Takeshi gently corrects Hayato's grip on his chopsticks and spends almost as much time feeding both Hayato and Sho-chan as Kyoya does lucky-Tsuna, and he shakes his head, trying to dismiss the memory of Skull offering him choice pieces of food with his chopsticks; the Cloud always pouted when he refused them. And where was Skull? He hadn't heard from his original student for a couple of months ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1\. Sleepover (Heavy Petting, Fingering and Blow Jobs) - Gokudera Hayato/Hibari Kyōya/Irie Shōichi/Sawada Tsunayoshi/Yamamoto Takeshi - POV Hayato](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16307429/chapters/38143724)
> 
> [2\. A Mare in a Field of Stallions (Sub!Dino, Anal Sex, Double Penetration, Tattoo Kink) - Dino/Romario/Shamal/Yamamoto Tsuyoshi - POV Tsuyoshi](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16307429/chapters/38296916)


	21. Chapter 21

“Rise and shine boys.” He pokes the pile of boys and blankets - amusingly even Kyōya was in the heap - with a bō-staff to rouse them from their sleep. A hand, probably the Glacier’s snaps out and blocks him from prodding lucky-Tsuna with it. 

“The small carnivore needs his sleep, taiyo-jiichan, and the only one that will discipline him for being late to Nami-chuu is me.”

“And you want more time to pet your small carnivore, Kyōya?”

“Hn. Go check on the mare you put in the field of stallions, taiyo-jiichan and I’ll wake everyone up later.” It takes him a moment to realise what the Glacier means by his statement and he shakes his head and lets the pile of sleeping boys lie; Kyōya is incorrigible, but he is right that he should check on Dino given that his Sky-student had had two very dominant Guardian-candidates focused on him last night. He’d have to revise the tutoring timetable to account for how useless pipsqueak-Dino was going to be in the mornings if he’d taken Shamal as his Mist and Tsuyoshi as his Rain. “Will phone Kusakabe and tell him the school is his to run today. And to discipline the noisy-herbivore so he might listen to the small-carnivore later.” Leon shifts back from his bō-staff and he takes the hint, leaving the room to a faint giggle from lucky-Tsuna’s River and a squeak from his Forest.

Nana and Bianchi are sat leaning against each other companionably, legs under the kotatsu and there’s breakfast on the low table, but he’s not going to join them given the way their Flames are curled together, and the haze on the food; he wasn’t going to test the pair of them. He slips past them both and Leon shifts into his satellite phone form and starts dialling; he holds the phone to his ear, curious as to who his companion thinks he needs to talk to _now_.

“Pronto.” Lal Mirch. He rifles through his brain for everything he needs to say to his fellow Arcobaleno. “Tell me something entertaining, Reborn, Iemitsu is trying _very_ hard to get me to kill him this morning.”

“Don’t you fucking _dare_ Lal; I promised myself I’d feed Idiotsu his eyes and baka-Timoteo Idiotsu’s pan-fried kidneys before I kill them _both_.” Of all things, Lal _coos_ at the threat of enforced cannibalism, and he’s not quite sure _how_ to feel about that; he’s not had a lot of contact with her since the Fated Day, but he’d remembered her as incredibly straight-laced for an SOE operative rather than bloodthirsty enough for classic hitwoman.

“That sounds like you found something in Japan that’s going to make me want to break Idiotsu’s legs haven’t you, Reborn.”

“He and baka-Timoteo Sealed his Active son, warping his Flames, possibly in a similar way to how the Pacifier warped yours.” Something shatters in the office on the other end of the line.

“I should shoot him. Or perhaps I should tell him the Varia is up to something and let their mooks use him as target practice whilst paying for Viper to make sure he returns alive but in several pieces; that way he’d be unable to do anything equally Stupid to Basil, Rosemary or one of his other bastards while he heals.” He makes an amused sound.

“Speaking of his bastards. How many is he up to, and are there any photos of his indiscretion de jour floating around? He doesn’t deserve Nana and now that lucky-Tsuna and I have started the process of healing her, I want to get the divorce pushed through before he even _thinks_ of going to Japan so if he does, I can conceal her from him.” Proprietary feeling seeps into his voice, and Lal chuckles.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were a Sky trying to protect one of their Guardians from an abusive ex, Reborn.” He freezes, pieces of the puzzle that he’s been desperately trying to ignore. He _can’t_ be a Sky, but could he be an Earth? He felt incredibly protective over Nana, and over lucky-Tsuna, and while he was normally a mama-bear over his students, it had previously taken months to develop, but he’d seen just how bonds could make a Sky instantaneously and _viciously_ protective. “Reborn, you’ve gone very, _very_ quiet. But yes, I can get you a range of photos of him fucking Oregano over his office desk; he keeps forgetting to turn off his office cameras. There’s even _sound_.” 

“Verde has a PO Box set up for Vongola related correspondence; it should be in the docs I sent to baka-Timoteo and Idiotsu.”

“Reborn, what’s going on? You’re being fucking skittish, and that’s not like you at _all_.” He hesitates and Lal makes a curious, coaxing sound, and he finds words spilling out of his mouth about all the weird-ass shit that’s happened since he arrived in Japan, and he feels better for it and then he realises _why_. 

“… are you using interrogation techniques on me, Lal?”

“Only a little bit. I’ll take the next CEDEF mission to Japan available, and you can introduce me to little Tsuna and Nana, and I’ll forge his fucking signature on the documents for you; I can even steal a sample of his Flames for them. Now fuck off and be nice to your new Guardian, Reborn; pamper her or something. If she’s willing to put up with your bullshit after putting up with Idiotsu’s for the past sixteen years, she deserves it.” The line clicks, and Leon shifts back in his hands, making it clear that the call is done. He’ll leave spoiling Nana to Bianchi for now; he has no desire to walk back in or disrupt the love-in between the two women. 

“Motorbike, please, Leon.” His chameleon makes a face at him and transforms into the replica of Skull’s bike again, and he pulls the helmet on and enjoys the ride through Namimori’s quiet streets to Takesushi. 

The restaurant is dark and quiet, and there’s Flame wards, a mix of Rain and Sky and Mist and Sun surrounding the apartment, but the boundaries are easy enough for him to cross thanks to that little bit of Dino’s Flames he still carries. There’s a pile of sleeping bodies in the bedroom, fortunately, covered in blankets and partially clothed as far as he can tell. Dino’s blonde head is pillowed on Tsuyoshi’s chest, and he covers his eyes when he realises he can’t see Shamal’s head, backing out of the door and then flaring his Flames brilliant and bright, startling all four of them awake. Curses, and sharply flaring Flames ensue, icy-cold Rain Flames and curling Mist circling sleepy, trusting Sky Flames, and resigned Sun Flames, and it’s Romario who sticks his head around the door. “Couldn’t you have left us to sleep off the afterglow, Reborn?”

“Not really; your Sky is supposed to be tutoring lucky-Tsuna this morning. And speaking of pipsqueak-Dino, how does it feel to no longer be his only Guardian, Romario?”

“Good. And it’d be better if I could get back to … bonding, Reborn. I’d rather not let Dino surface just yet.” Romario laughs at the face he pulls. “And weren’t you letting the boys have their sleepover, too?”

“I did. And I think I’m writing today off and going to spend some time with Verde in his lab. Just -” he waves his hand “- make sure Dino and the others put clothes on in time to join us for dinner at Nana’s this evening.”

“No promises,” Romario smirks at him, but then sighs. “Dino needs spoiling; between the rogue CEDEF cell with the Estraneo weapon - who are still on the loose, even if I did slit two of the cell members’ throats - some idiot managing to ‘rustle’ three of his horses and the Vongola’s normal bullshit, he’s been running himself ragged. Hopefully, between the three of us, we’ll be able to get him to relax, at least a little bit.”

He pinches his nose. “Just tell me you got the horses back. I know how he Rages when they’re hurt.”

“They caught fire.”

“Good. And go back to your Sky, Romario; it sounds like he needs a little spoiling.” Romario retreats back into the bedroom and he sighs and stretches, making his shoulders pop and crack. He snaffles a couple of onigiri from Tsuyoshi’s fridge and eats them on the way down the stairs. Leon shifts back to the bike again, and he yawns and mounts it just as a sleepy ripple of pleased Sky Flames bounces of the wards around Tsuyoshi’s apartment and he resists the urge to cackle; the strength of the wards makes a lot more sense after ‘feeling’ that. 

Finding Verde’s lab is as simple as following the prickly sensation rasping at his Flames. (He’s going to have to re-evaluate everything, including his interactions and relationships with the other Arcobaleno in light of the clue-by-four that Lal had just chosen to hit him with, and what he’d said, about the pacifier breaking and twisting Lal’s Flames; and his own condensing, and _fuck_. Fuck, fuck - he’d been some comfortable in denial, why had she had to hit him with that clue-bat _now_?) The Lightning has apparently decided to set himself up in an abandoned amusement park on the edge between Namimori and Kokuyo, and he rolls his eyes at the theatricality of it. Verde was currently ridiculously in love with his mad scientist aesthetic, and he should have guessed that he’d have taken up residence in the amusement park the moment he realised it was there. 

“You’re getting predictable, Verde.”

“I didn’t cackle maniacally when you walked into the park, did I?”

“And that was _very_ restrained of you.”

“No need to be sarcastic, Reborn. So did Lal’s clue-by-four get through to you? Because if it did …”

“Food first, Verde; lucky-Tsuna’s got some _very_ simple rules for his mad scientist that seem like an _excellent_ idea to me.”

“What do you think Kaiman does for me, Reborn?” He ignores the question and used to the standard layouts of Verde’s labs, heads straight for the kitchen area. He makes himself some coffee - noting that Verde has his preferred artisanal coffee beans - and checks what food there is in the cupboards and mini-fridge. The answer is not much and he pinches his nose. What could he make with that? He freezes as he realises what he’s doing …

… and headdesks. How fucking long had he been an Earth? Because he was trying to take care of Verde the way lucky-Tsuna took care of Shoichi. “I wonder whether Nana knows if being dense and prone to camping out on islands in Lake Victoria is common to Earth Flame users.” Verde sounds amused. “I’m working on a way to reliably detect Earth Flames; your new student is easy to track now I’ve filtered for Mist/Desert interference, as he’s constantly flexing the gravitational field around himself, but the normal ways of detecting Rains or Clouds aren’t working on the boy’s ‘companions’.”

“Have you tried using your own Flames as a baseline, Verde?”

“Only if you want me to get territorial Reborn.” He raises an eyebrow and shoving every single bit of Sun Flame to hand into the pacifier to make it easier to touch his other Flames. (Glutting the pacifiers wasn’t an ideal solution, leaving them incredibly greedy for days afterwards, but it worked.) The sudden absence of usable Sun leaves him with his familiar minor Mist Flame _and_ the Earth Flame that he was still half in denial about, but he grabs it up and ‘pokes’ Verde with it and there’s a sub-audible click and the scientist _glares_ at him. “And why the fuck couldn’t you have waited until we were in my lab, you -”

He shoves with his Earth Flame in the manner that one of Nana’s kami-tales had suggested and waits; he’s rewarded with Verde folding and he picks him up and carries him through to where he knows Verde’s nest will be and drops him into it. “At least that trick is going to make it easier to force you to take an occasionally well-earned nap, Verde.” He turns to leave the scientist to sleep, but Kaiman had apparently decided to pretend to be feline, because he stumbles over him and then he and Verde’s companion animals conspire to prevent him leaving the nest long enough for Verde to wrap himself around him and he surrenders and joins the Lightning ( _his Glacier!_ ) in napping. It wasn’t like there was anything else he could get done, given that all of his students were currently holding love-ins of their own …


	22. Chapter 22

He wraps his dominant hand around his own pacifier, and his other around Verde’s and forces the illusions that Viper had wrapped around them to Activate. The illusion is so close to a true reversion to their adult form that the minor discrepancies ache, and it takes a moment to readjust. Once he has, he takes advantage of their adult forms to press a kiss on the still sleeping Verde, who wakes up with a start, but doesn’t shove him away. Instead, Verde blushes prettily, and okay, maybe he could do this, be the centre of a set, be the sort of Sky/Earth that he’s been trying to shape pipsqueak-Dino and lucky-Tsuna into. “What was that for, Reborn?”

“Wanted to confirm something.”

“That we weren’t broken? I was listening to Nana’s talk when she mentioned that, but Luce was never our Sky, so I didn’t consider it an issue.”

“Of _course_ you were listening.” He steals one more kiss before he releases his mental grip on the two illusions, and they both collapse back into their cursed forms, and he loses any trace of his libido. (One of the small mercies of the curse was that absence; he’d be thoroughly frustrated if he’d had to deal with that level of need and desire every day without the ability to act on it.) 

“I will spend some time looking into ways of extending the duration of the illusion.” He smiles; that was an absolutely Verde-ian way of saying that the scientist wouldn’t mind that - and more - happening again. “Perhaps Viper would be willing to cooperate with an experiment in return for any improvements being … shared.”

He rubs his temple and makes an offer he’d probably regret - “If Viper is being obstinate about working with you, Verde, I can pay them,” - but given he was currently ransacking the Vongola accounts in vengeance for the mess of a situation he’d been parachuted into and he’d spent half-a-century taking his anger at the curse out on the wider mafia he could afford at least twenty hours of Viper’s time, even at their most extortionate rates; it would also mean he could check whether they’d acquired an Earthy-secondary, and/or that they were happy with their chosen Sky (he ignores all the implications of that thought resolutely).

Verde waves his hand dismissively. “They owe me a favour; I told them how to deal with zero-point without access to a Sky. If I invite them to join me in Japan to conduct an experiment, they’ll jump at the opportunity to pay off their notional ‘debt’. Now shoo; I have some filters to refine and after that wake up your Flames are going to be _highly_ distracting.”

“Food first, Verde.”

“Tsch. I’ll order something from Takesushi for a late breakfast. Not ready for food yet.” Leon shifts into a taser, and he raises an eyebrow at Verde; the taser wouldn’t do him much good if the Lightning didn’t want to cooperate, but it was significantly more weapon-like than Leon normally permitted around the other Arcobaleno. “Fine. You’re paying. And driving.”

“Deal.”

Takesushi isn’t open, but there’s an Arcobaleno-sized ‘hole’ in the protections around the restaurant, and sounds of movement from the private quarters that sound more like a late breakfast being prepared than anything more salacious, and he and Verde brave the stairs. Tsuyoshi’s in the open plan kitchen area, Romario playing sous chef, and the bedroom door is closed, and any sound from that direction was discreetly muted, though he could take a guess what he might see if he opened the door. Which was why he _wasn’t_ going to open the door, no matter how curious he was feeling. 

“I assume you’d both like some coffee?” The question comes from Romario, in a soft Italian accent, and he nods; he assumes that Verde does too, as pipsqueak-Dino’s Sun pours two measurements of water into an odd pan, and settles two drip filters over mugs. “Do you still take your coffee black and bitter-sweet, Reborn?”

“Like his heart.”

“You wound me.”

“Do I need to tell them about 1925?”

“No.” He shudders at the memory. “And yes, please, Romario. Did you have an enjoyable night?” Romario’s lips curve into a smile. 

“I finally have fellow Guardians. I hadn’t realised how hyper-aware being Dino’s only one had made me until last night when I suddenly wasn’t.” 

“Pipsqueak-Dino took to Shamal as well?”

“Enthusiastically.” The one word, smug and amused comes from Tsuyoshi, who had just pressed Romario to the counter in order to reach for one of the bowls of ingredients and the Sun blushed. “I’m sure the boys settled things between themselves, too.”

“And that doesn’t bother you, Tsuyoshi?”

“Takeshi has been through his genpuku, and had merely been waiting for a cause to present itself; he is old enough to make his own choices, old enough to know how to keep himself safe, and old enough to choose to follow his Sky - or rather his Earth - given the ‘magic’ involved.” The intonation on the word magic made it clear that Tsuyoshi was using it as a placeholder. “The kotatsu should still have enough fuel in it; could you light it for us, Reborn?”

He rolls his eyes and waves his hand in the direction of the kotatsu, and Romario snorts in amusement at the audible flicker-hiss of the small burner ‘catching’. “Show off.”

“World’s _Greatest_ Hitman.”

“Yes, yes. You have an ego, and we all know it.” Verde’s voice is dry and amused, and a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but he’d argue that point later when Verde was being smug over doing something about the pacifiers and their cursed forms. (What would happen if lucky-Tsuna turned one of the pacifiers into a diamond? Or if pipsqueak-Dino - who was quietly developing a deep and subtle strength - was taught to use zero-point and used it to ‘freeze’ them?) 

“Pot, kettle.” 

“Bite me.” He raises an eyebrow at Verde.

“Not in that form.”

“That was taken as a given.” Verde shudders expressively at the idea of trying to do anything sexual in their chibi forms, and then the door of the master bedroom eases open, distracting him from continuing the banter. Dino looks ruffled and mussed, wrapped in a deep amber yukata and walking like he had used to after he’d escaped to ride one of his horses rather than engage with training. Shamal looked smug, and rather feminine in his pale purple yukata - the resemblance to Bianchi was somewhat startling, and he wondered how no one had picked up that she was his granddaughter - walked equally gingerly. 

“Drink your coffee and try not to ask questions that you don’t really want to know the answers to, Reborn. Just accept that things have been smoothed out and made more secure; there is a lot a Guardian can do in defence of their Sky, and vice versa.” Romario hands him a cup, and he’s pleasantly surprised by the coffee in it, given that it wasn’t from an espresso machine. It also distracts him from teasing his Sky-student about how carefully the boy folded himself into seiza at the kotatsu and while a small part of his brain started speculating on a training program, but he shoved it to the back of his mind in favour of indulging in the physical and emotional warmth that had filled the restaurant’s private quarters, careful to modulate his Flames so as not to risk scorching Dino or pissing off Romario (or, curiously, Tsuyoshi, who was definitely showing signs of being as cloudy as Dino himself, who very much had a Cloud’s rage when it came to his horses).

“That’s what I’m worried about. If Timoteo or Iemitsu die before I’ve finished with them, -” he leaves the threat hanging, not entirely sure _what_ he’d do if he was thwarted, but none of the men in front of him would enjoy it.

“Can I give Iemitsu neurosyphilis at least?” Tsuyoshi, Romario and Dino all shudder, though the shudder has pipsqueak-Dino blushing.

“No. Just no, Shamal. Maybe cholera would be a better bet; would make him miserable, but it’s something Vongola medical can deal with.” Dino’s eyes were tinted purple when he looked up from the kotatsu’s table. “You’re mine, and the juxtaposition of neurosyphilis, Iemitsu and you make me want to _Rage_.”

“Brat, you do remember that I use my mosquitos - Mmph.” He snorts as a still possessive pipsqueak-Dino cuts Shamal’s protest off in a way that makes it quite clear that Shamal is _his_ now. 

“Dino, guests.” Romario’s voice has a certain snap to it, and the blond releases Shamal, and looks up at his Sun like a kicked puppy; Romario sighs and prepares another cup of coffee. “I know that Reborn’s seen enough of you that you don’t care how much more he sees, but Verde hasn’t, and you didn’t ask Shamal if he’s an exhibitionist.”

“Romario,” Dino whines, and he snorts at the pathetic sound from his Sky-student. 

“You know the rules, Boss.”

“But -”

“Romario, can you carry these over to the table for me; that was the last bit of the food I was planning to make for breakfast.” The Sun carries over a tray of food, and Tsuyoshi follows him, and the meal is very Japanese with beautifully sliced fish and rice balls and a whole range of pickles and relishes and miso soup. The fish is rich and buttery sweet, and after he’s stolen a slice of it and a rice ball, Tsuyoshi pointedly shifts the platter over to between Shamal - who was still looking rather more feminine than he usually chose to - and Dino, and he raises an eyebrow. Tsuyoshi’s Flames flare Cloudy, and he leaves the matter alone; pipsqueak-Dino was working on filling out fully, and Shamal had the same sort of ridiculously fast metabolism that Bianchi and Hayato showed signs of. It probably wasn’t anything more than that. And if it were, the fallout would be hilarious.

When breakfast was finished, the dishes put away, Shamal roped into the washing up alongside Romario, much to the Mist’s chagrin and Dino flops onto the cushions, taking advantage of the informality to put his head in what looked like Tsuyoshi’s lap given the way he had disappeared under the table-line. Tsuyoshi’s hand drops to ruffle Dino’s hair affectionately and gently.

“So how true _do_ Flames run in your line, Tsuyoshi?”

“Reliably enough that our lifestyle and teaching techniques revolve around being Rains; as a result, we’ve had a ‘fostering’ arrangement with the Hibari. Perhaps one child - male or female - has required fostering out every two or three generations, and we’ve taken in members of the Hibari in return, if they’ve needed it. My great-uncle was fostered out as he was a very classic Cloud, and he and the Hibari of his generation got on _very_ well.” Verde was scribbling notes at speed. “He failed to thrive until his parents arranged to activate the agreement with the Hibari, whereas Takeshi and I didn’t have the obvious conflict the Family journals described and once he started kenjutsu, he took to enough of the ‘passive’ family techniques that I wasn’t concerned about that side of his development; the apparent change to ‘River’ masqueraded as depression and Sky-hunger, which Eiko had warned me was common in her Family.”

“So River Flames seem to be related sufficiently to Rain Flames that Takeshi can use what should be ‘passive’ Rain techniques, yes?”

“At least the ones on the ‘heavy’ end of the spectrum.” Verde tapped his teeth with the end of his stylus, obviously thinking something through. “He can’t conceal himself the way I can, or use any of the ‘passive’ Rain techniques that border on the Misty, but he has tendencies that I would have pegged as Electric in other circumstances.”

“But not now you know he’s from a different spectrum of Flames from your own?”

“He’s got a fairly pure Flame, and the tendencies are too pronounced to be the fault of a tertiary.” Verde tilted his head. “The family lore holds that Flames are part nature, part nurture, that being raised _appropiately_ by Rains will coax a Rainy-type into maturing into a Primary Rain, but if the Rain Flame is only a tertiary, then that’s where the conflicts develop and fostering is the most sensible option, preferably before the familial relationships break down entirely.” 

“Fascinating. And makes plenty of sense; Xanxus di Vongola would have been far better served by being fostered by the Visconti than raised under Timoteo’s Misty Sky.”

“He’s _Misty_?!” He almost doesn’t recognise his own voice. But it’s an honest question; he would have pegged his almost-wife’s son as the worst kind of Rainy-Sky, rather than a Misty-Sky.

“He oscillates between wilfully ignorant of his secondary Flame and suppressing it viciously, which only exaggerates the character traits; look how insistent he _still_ is that Xanxus is his ‘natural’ son.”

“How do you - no, Viper asked you to check Xanxus’s parentage, didn’t they?”

“And a fascinating headache that was. Let’s just say the Estraneo were involved in his conception, but that he is, undeniably, a Vongola; more so than Timoteo in many ways.” That explained why he’d had half a thought that Daniela had persuaded her Mist to help her produce an alternate to Timoteo’s sons to inherit; she’d been a throwback to Ricardo in many ways, especially since like Ricardo she’d been far too busy fighting the government to tolerate the shenanigans that Timoteo did.

There’s a knock on the door to the private quarters, followed by a quite clear “Sensei? I thought we were opening the restaurant for lunch today?” 

“Up Dino-chan; Ito-kun is Active enough to know that I’m in here, and he’s just going to keep knocking until I answer - he’s been with me since not long after I lost Eiko, and worries when I disrupt my routine for entirely valid reasons.”

“Don'wanna.” Tsuyoshi ruffles Dino’s hair again, and lifts the fluffy blond head, sliding himself out from underneath the kotatsu as well as his Sky-student, who whines at the loss of comfort and warmth.

“There can be more cuddling shortly, Dino, but Ito-kun has every reason to worry about me not responding.” It takes a moment for what Tsuyoshi means to register, and then there’s an overwhelming surge of Sky Flames that wrap around the Rain, causing him to stumble, and he agrees with the sentiment one-hundred-per-cent.

“Good boy, Dino.” The small bit of praise makes his Sky-student preen, and Verde shakes his head but doesn’t argue. “So there are two reasons I wanted you in Japan, and believe it or not, neither of them involved getting you new Guardians. Lucky-Tsuna needs _significant_ tutoring to be able to deal with Italy, and I was expecting you to cover English and Sicilian and given he did such a good job with you, I was hoping Romario would cover Mafia Etiquette and Shamal, he’s got almost no grounding in Science. Can you cover the Life Sciences?”

The Mist grumbles and shoots a look at his Sky, who nods with a certain amount of seriousness that had been missing since the silly Sky had emerged from Tsuyoshi’s bedroom. “And I assume you want me to play medical officer to your new student, as well?” He nods, and the man humphs. “I’ll start them with first aid training, I think; get them used to patching each other up and introduce the basics in a practical way before we move onto anything more theoretical; it’ll give me a chance to investigate their health more … subtly.”

“And you want me to cover the Physical Sciences, I assume?”

“Or Shoichi and Hayato will be able to teach the others between them -” Verde’s eyes flash, and perhaps he was being a little manipulative, but that was his nature at this point. 

“You’re an evil-minded brat, Reborn.” He preened at his Glacier’s compliment, and Tsuyoshi, who had shooed off his worried student to open the restaurant, shook his head in amusement at their antics. “I should use you for experiments, and then sell your still breathing corpse on the black market.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Don’t make me separate you two -” they both look up at Tsuyoshi with the wide eyes that the curse had given them, and go back to the bickering when the man starts the slow process of hustling pipsqueak-Dino into the bathroom, presumedly to soak in the furo. 

“I should make sure the boys are up and dressed, and make arrangements for the tutoring; are you going to stay and play fifth wheel, or join me?”

“The latter I think.” He’s not surprised. 

“Will Ito-san be able to cover the restaurant tonight, Tsuyoshi? Nana has a delightful habit of making celebratory meals, and I think she’d appreciate getting to cook for everyone tonight.” 

“I think he can manage that,” Tsuyoshi answers him over his shoulder, and he leaves the private quarters, Verde in tow, just as there’s a squeak from one of the men, and dealing with two sets in their honeymoon period was going to be a headache and a half.


	23. Chapter 23

“Ara! Reborn-san, Verde-san, have you eaten?”

“We have, Nana. We sat down with Dino and his ‘companions’ for breakfast; Tsuyoshi and Shamal have settled into his Sky.”

“I’m going to have to go shopping! So many celebrations of new bonds - Tsu-kun’s bonds have settled to, and Bianchi-chan is working on her control, but perhaps you could have her help you tutoring the boys later? Someone seriously messed her Flames up and it’s going to be a while before I trust her cooking with anyone who isn’t a Swamp. I wish I could send her to obāsan; she might be able to untangle it, but we’ll just have to work on it slowly, Reborn-san.”

“Then the boys will just have to have their first lesson in World History and Western Flame Culture, Nana.” Her Flames twitch, slightly unhappy against his, and he soothes them without thinking, reaching out with the Flame that wouldn’t scorch her, and wouldn’t make her twitch in distress, and then thinks to reassure her verbally, too. “Not to indoctrinate them, Nana. More so that they know their enemies and the flaws in how they use their Flames.”

“Ara. Okay.” Her lips curve, and her smile makes him feel warm. “You’re getting more expressive with your Earth, Reborn. Are you courting me _deliberately_?”

His eyes widen, and his Flames go choppy in alarm, and the pacifier makes him shudder in pain, and then there was Nana and Verde, and oh, she was right. Swamp Flames pour out, and he’s seen this sort of thing, watched Fon try it in the aftermath of the Fated Day, but he’s too shocked to try and stop it. But rather than lash out, knocking her out, it heats inexorably until - if Leon hadn’t made his suit - he’d be sure it would be about to catch fire. The heat vanishes abruptly when ice-cold Flames - Glacier? - slide between his skin and the pacifier and the world starts to haze.

“ _Kaa-chan_!” Earth Flames, far stronger than the weak Flame he’s trying to nurture flood the room, and it feels like he has an elephant on his chest. “You _can’t_. Not yet, and not on your own.”

“Ara, but it was hurting him Tsu-kun.” The Flames ease but still curl around them all carefully. 

“Hn.” Tsuyoshi’s son facepalms, but he doesn’t have to ask why, as Kyōya chooses to clarify. “At least I know where you get your impulsivity from, little carnivore.” Fon’s great-grandson sighed. “The pacifiers are a curse, Nana-san. The more that their wearers try to affect them the more they hurt them.”

Lucky-Tsuna tilts his head like he’s listening to something - perhaps the hyper intuition he’s seen flashes of - and then smiles. “Maybe you could just concentrate on using your Flames like mine, Reborn. Might be hard, but it didn’t feel like it was trying to eat Kaa-chan’s Flames? Just that if she’d kept on trying to kill it, it would have exploded?”

“What do you mean it wasn’t trying to eat Nana’s Flame, Tsunayoshi?”

“When you use your Flames, Verde-san, most of them get absorbed by the pacifier, and it gets even hungrier because you’re ‘stealing’ from it. But when you used your Kyōya-Flame, it didn’t react at _all_.” He shook his head, trying to make his mind clear faster. He had a sneaking suspicion of what Verde was debating doing, and while lucky-Tsuna seemed to be perfectly capable of managing _his_ scientist, he wasn’t sure if those skills would extend to Verde’s rather eccentric version.

But lucky-Tsuna isn’t trying to do manage the room on his own; Shoichi murmurs something, and then he feels the way that Kyōya snatches control of the Glacier Flames in the room before Verde can bring them to bear on the pacifier, and he was going to _spank_ the man. Hadn’t he heard Tsuna’s warning? Had he forgotten the research they’d done into the Vongola’s Hyper Intuition - they’d even managed to quantify it and derived a method to assess its reliability!

He manages to push himself back up to a sitting position and scowls at the sulking Verde. “Before you ignore lucky-Tsuna’s intuition, we should probably test it against Daniela’s scores, Verde.”

The Lighting pouts, and Nana, silly impulsive woman, picks up Verde and hugs him. Verde, rather tellingly, doesn’t actually complain in any of the ways that they normally did if treated like adorable ‘chibi’; rather he settled into her arms and accepted the affectionate comfort as his due. “Kyōya-senpai said that you’d let us sleep and that he wouldn’t bite us to death for it because you were planning on taking us out of some of our classes?”

“It was one of the reasons that I summoned your seniors, lucky-Tsuna. And Nana requested that we distract Bianchi so that she can cook without her.” Smoking Bomb crosses himself, a heartfelt gesture that makes his lips curve. “Speaking of Bianchi, where is she, Nana?”

“She’s still asleep.” Nana beams at him, and he decides not to press the issue; if Bianchi had managed to ask for what she wanted, then good for her. “Come have breakfast, Tsu-kun, and tell me about your new Desert? Bianchi told me some things, but I think she’s got a very different point of view on what’s important about Hayato-kun.” He barely avoids snickering at the way Hayato tries to hide behind the smaller Tsuna, but then Nana’s words register and he facepalms hard. “Had you not noticed that he was a Desert, Reborn-san?”

“You have the most ridiculous luck, Tsuna.”

“Ara, but Bianchi-chan is a Swamp, Reborn-san, and he’s Shamal’s grandson too, so perhaps it shouldn’t be such a surprise?” He narrows his eyes, pieces starting to slot together and there’s a giggle from Takeshi at the expression. 

“Shamal is a Mist.”

“Are you sure? I talk to Kaa-chan and a lot of people chose ‘meaningful’ use names in the Mafia, and he’s claimed a very interesting name, Reborn.” The question came from Shoichi, who seem to be suppressing the urge to snicker

“He is rather a notorious Mist-assassin, and Dino has claimed him as his Mist; it has to be at least one of his Flames, Shoichi.” But given how altered Shamal had been looking when they’d eaten breakfast he wouldn’t put it past the man to be hiding things. If he was an Earthy-type as well, though, he almost certainly didn’t know though. Probably. Unless he thought that trolling him would be fun; the doctor-assassin could be like that. 

“True, but his name roughly translates as Desert Storm …” 

“Mhmm.” Perhaps he would have to interrogate Shamal later about his family history; if he’d bred two Earth-types - but he was getting confused; lucky-Tsuna’s Forest, River and Glacier seemed to indicate that one could transition from Sky to Earth spectrum, but lucky-Tsuna had a parent with an Earth-type Flame, and Smokin’ Bomb had a sister.

“Does it have to be nature or nurture; can’t it be both?” The question came from Nana, and reminded him of the earlier conversation with Tsuyoshi. “Earth, and maybe Sky -” she looks at Verde, who nods - most of the Sky-lines threw Skies reliably providing that there was nothing profoundly wrong with either parent and fuck, Idiotsu’s _bastards weren’t Skies_ \- “families breed far more true than most of the other lines, and we weren’t that close to the main family, but when o-nee-san showed signs of being an Earth, everyone dived in to help her coax into a full Flame.”

He had a second bad thought; though Viper could probably confirm whether he was being too harsh on baka-Timoteo. Had any of the Vongola boys - other than Xanxus, who had come in from the streets active - actually _been_ Skies? Or had the Stupid idiot been running a forty-year con that he’d been about to be called on? It would explain why he’d been reluctant to hand over power if none of his legitimate children could actually hold the Rings.

“Did that make you jealous, Nana?”

“Ara, no. O-nee-san enjoyed everything that came with being an Earth, even the paperwork and appreciated that it allowed her to _be_ o-nee-san, but I wanted other things.” He heard the unspoken ‘not that I got them, but -’ and resolved to spend sometime interrogating _his_ Swamp about what she wants, and then to make sure she got the opportunities she deserved. “O-nee-san _wanted_ to retreat to the islands, but I didn’t. Iemitsu promised me the world, and left me here.” 

That was a desire that he’d be quite happy to help her fulfil; he’d have to check with Colonello where Mafia Island was currently located and book them all a vacation. Bianchi could act as her escort, and if both of them showed off their ‘poison cooking’ everyone would give them a wide berth and they could enjoy themselves safely enough. And it was neutral ground; perhaps he could coax Viper into bringing their Sky to the Island for a few days. (Verde had admitted to helping Viper with zero-point ice so he assumed Xanxus must be out and healing, even if baka-Timoteo hadn’t realised it yet. Having the miser owe him for helping heal their Sky would be useful and he, at least, had experience of fixing zero-point damage thanks to the way Daniela had used it to control fascist prisoners.)

“How would you like a vacation somewhere sunny, Nana?” Lucky-Tsuna looks at him sceptically, and Smoking Bomb murmurs something in his ear, and then wraps his arms around him, and even if he was still facepalming at not realising that Hayato was a Desert, at least the boys were being adorable and openly affectionate in a way that made him more confident he’d found his newest student compatible ‘companions’. 

“We can discuss it over breakfast, Reborn. Or breakfast for the boys at least; they have to be hungry -” lucky-Tsuna, Shoichi and Hayato all go bright pink, and Nana laughs, but doesn’t tease them, “and I bought some specialist beans, and I’ve already ground them for your coffee.”

“Alright, Nana.” The table, suspiciously, has just enough room for everyone again, but before he can ask, she gives him a cup of coffee even better than Romario’s, and properly appreciating it distracts him from the puzzle - and from just how much food his Swamp had once again made. (But not from who she served what dishes.)

“So where were you thinking my Earth, and why did my Tsu-kun look at you so sceptically?” He squeaks. He’ll deny the sound for the rest of his life, but he squeaks. Verde might have let him bully the scientist into self-care, he hadn’t explicitly acknowledged the reason. He recovers fairly quickly, and launches into an explanation of Mafia Island. Hayato chimes in; he hadn’t realised the boy had been living on the Island after he’d been well enough to escape Shamal’s tender mercies, though it made sense as it was one of the best places to access Flame-aware medical care. (Lucky-Tsuna only twitches a little bit at some of his more blatant attempts to pre-bait traps.)

“And if one of my other colleagues comes through, you’ll get to meet another Sky, lucky-Tsuna.” He’d have to work Xanxus into his plans to kill baka-Timoteo and Idiotsu; the boy would be almost as annoyed at being left out of brutal vengeance as Daniela would have been ... 


	24. Chapter 24

“You and your Sky are so adorable, Hayato!” Bianchi, wearing what is quite clearly one of Nana’s yukata - it’s shorter than he knows the garment should be - emerges from the direction of the stairs, and proceeds to lean over his Swamp, only for her fingers to be swatted away from the communal dishes by Nana. “But -”

“Not until you manage to cook rice and have it turn out to be neither poisonous nor explosive, Bianchi-chan.” Nana kisses the hand she’d swatted, and Lucky-Tsuna goes pink again, and Smokin’ Bomb a shade of green that he hadn’t seen on the boy since the time Bianchi had kidnapped him and brought him to Shamal for much needed medical attention. “I know you warned me, but I hadn’t expected the pan to actually blow up.”

“Hiiieee?!” The exclamation/question makes him laugh especially as it had come from Smokin’ Bomb rather than lucky-Tsuna; apparently, his student had already infected the explosives expert. 

“I’m teaching Bianchi-chan control, and she’s teaching me other things, Hayato-kun in, uh, payment.” He hides his grin in his coffee cup and wished that he’d recorded everything for Shamal, so he could show the Mist just how outrageous his granddaughter could be.

“Bianchi, once you’ve had breakfast and a shower, I thought we could start to cover ‘World’ History with the boys; Hayato, you _should_ know this, so whether you stay, or explore the neighbourhood with Kyōya is up to you.” Except, apparently, it isn’t; Fon’s great-grandson hoisted the new-found Desert onto his shoulder, tipped his head to Nana, and exited almost before he could blink. 

His student shook his head, amusement bubbling up. “You gave Kyōya an excuse, Reborn. At least he won’t disappoint Kaa-chan by missing dinner, so he should bring Hayato back in a couple of hours; Hayato-kun might even be able to look Bianchi-san in the face when he does.”

“Bianchi-san?” His female student pouts at him. “So much formality, Tsuna. My baby brother is yours, and mmph -” Nana puts a hand over Bianchi’s mouth, and he was going to have to have a conversation with her about behaving until Idiotsu was dead.

“Bianchi, if I take my hand from over your mouth, will you behave, or do you need to go and take a shower while I chase everyone else out of the house?” 

Earth Flames curl in the room, brushing against his, and against Nana’s Flames - making his bristle slightly - and then against Bianchi’s and lucky-Tsuna giggles. “I think we better leave, Kaa-chan. Bianchi doesn’t feel like she wants to behave, and we’re done with breakfast. Bianchi-san, hurt my Mama, and I’ll turn you into a _very_ pretty diamond for her to wear or sell as she pleases.”

Nana uncovers Bianchi’s mouth. “And if you hurt Hayato -”

“Takeshi would punish him, Bianchi. An Earth and a River’s relationship can be complicated, Bianchi-chan. Now. Go shower, Bianchi, and take the cover off the furo in the master bathroom; I need to finish off the bentō, and then I’ll join you.” Bianchi bounces up, vanishing back out of the kitchen and Nana smiles, standing herself. “Perhaps I should feel a little guilty, but Bianchi told me about Tsu-kun’s siblings, and I’ve already asked Hibari Touma just what it would take to divorce Iemitsu. When I told him about the others, he sounded gleeful and said I could claim all three of them, too, especially if they only had ‘underworld’ birth records.” Lucky-Tsuna shoots him a look and he winces; oh well. Basil at least would have been part of ‘World’ History, anyway; especially with the way Idiotsu was grooming him to be his successor at the CEDEF. He’d make Bianchi cover Rosemary and Mint, though; there had to be a reason they’d come up between the two women.

He leaves the subject of an Earth and River’s complex relationship to one side, and focuses on herding the remaining three boys out of the house before Bianchi’s self-control snapped. “Takeshi, do you think Tsuyoshi will mind if we use the dojo for non-combat lessons?” The boy goes from perky to pouting when he says ‘non-combat’, but nods. “Good. Then shoes on and out the door, boys.”

He jumps up onto Takeshi’s shoulder; the River doesn’t even flinch at the extra weight. Verde’s lips twitch. “I’ll go back to the lab and set up the simulations we figured out to quantify Daniela’s intuition; at least they’ll be easier to run on my current equipment. You get rather pissy when I made you do them by hand, even if it was faster than programming the first few generations of equipment.” 

If people had just left him alone and let him work on his maths - rather than trying to deprive him of his caffeine just because he was a chibi after the fucking curse - he wouldn’t have tried to kill them quite so hard. “They shouldn’t have taken my coffee. They deserved the knee-capping.”

“Noted.” His student sounds amused. “We’ll leave your coffee alone.”

The Cavallone had managed to learn that lesson without fatalities, unlike the Vongola before Daniela had intervened; he was pleased that lucky-Tsuna had at least that much sense. 

He rides Takeshi’s shoulder through Namimori to the dojo, and the four of them settle into the dojo, the River pulling tatami mats from one of the storage spaces and piling them up to make them all comfortable. The boys start off in seiza, attentive, but when they relax into each other, Shoichi taking notes while Takeshi fidgets, at least until lucky-Tsuna lays down, using Takeshi’s lap as a pillow, and the boy’s hands sink into his student’s hair. He allows it, especially as it seems to be helping them both focus. Which makes sense given that neither of them did very well in Nami-chuu.

He came to a natural stop in his lecture, half expecting a question from Shoichi, but instead, its lucky-Tsuna who does. “You mentioned another Sky, Reborn?”

“Xanxus; despite the effects of the curse, he managed to pull Viper - I don’t know if you met them when Fon pulled him to Namimori to help train Kyōya, but he’s the Mist like us - into Harmony with him, and the grouchy miser suffers less from the curse than any of us other than Colonello.” 

“Is he like Dino-nii?”

“It depends on which way you mean, lucky-Tsuna. Xanxus di Vongola -”

“- if there’s another heir, then _why_ did you get sent to me, Reborn?”

“The use of di is an indicator of bastardy in Italy, and on top of that, Xanxus looks like Secondo and reminds baka-Timoteo of his mother, who terrified him; from the photos in the file Idiotsu provided, you already looked like a brunet Primo at five, so he’s chosen you.” Takeshi and Shoichi edged away from his student who suddenly looked cranky and he tries to figure out what had set him off so very thoroughly.

“Baka-Timoteo is the manipulative old man who Sealed me, isn’t he?”

“Yes. But he’s my kill, lucky-Tsuna.” His student’s Flames flare angrily, but he ignores the show of temper. “I’ve been waiting for the excuse to execute him for _years_ , and you’re far too young to steal it from me.” Earth Flames press on him and his own Flames spark and rage and push back against his student’s which spread, rippling out, and welcome his own. “Still my kill, lucky-Tsuna, even if you _are_ trying to suborn me.”

“Not trying to suborn you Reborn. Just -” lucky-Tsuna waves his hands searching for the right words, even as his Earth Flames stoke his own. It’s entirely instinctual - he’s pretty sure about that; it certainly had been the first time he’d caught Dino doing it for Romario, and there’s nothing tainted about it. “- it felt right?”

Takeshi pulls lucky-Tsuna down into his lap, his River lapping at the rage they were both feeling, singing with the promise of quick and silent death of the two ‘sinners’, and it amused him; the young kendoist was fifty years too young to be able to beat him to a kill that he wanted. The River Flames were at least far more soothing than Colonello’s had been the last time the youngest Arcobaleno had tried the same trick. He makes a face at the memory of that attempt and shoves the thought away.

“Perhaps we should try an exercise instead of raising everyone’s blood pressure.” He certainly needs the break from thinking about baka-Timoteo; if his Sun Flames flared, the pacifier would feed on them greedily … “Do any of you ‘see’ Flames? Or taste them?”

The boys look at each other, and then Shoichi holds up his hand, “- um, maybe? I started off needing to use a jury-rigged set up to track what Tsu-kun was doing, but then I gradually began to be able to see flickers of red-orange Flame when Tsu-kun made things happen for me in the lab, if that’s what you mean, Reborn-san?”

“Sort of. I’m going to show you something and we’ll see what you learn from it.” He drags the three boys into the view of Flames his Mist allows him, and there’s a gasp as it ripples out, rich red earth underfoot, broken shards of Sky-seals glittering in the ‘sky’ illuminating the world and verdant green growth that spreads across the surface of the earth, and the winding river that sprawls, shallow and calm across the flamescape. He’s carefully _only_ using his Mist, and it’s odd being present in the ’scape without risking scorching it with his Sun. 

Shoichi is the first to ‘pop’ into existence in the flamescape, and he almost laughs when the boy pulls a notepad out of nowhere and starts to scribble notes. "Is this real, or is this some sort of illusion, Reborn-san?

“Can’t it be both?” Shoichi tilts his head, but is then distracted by lucky-Tsuna’s appearance, and the way the some of the seal-shards try to latch on to the Sky-traces from the bond that lucky-Tsuna and pipsqueak-Dino had started to form the previous day. The plants around lucky-Tsuna grow alarmingly quickly, until the growth blocks the seal-shards from his newest student, and damn, he was going to get to work on removing those as soon as possible. Takeshi looks vaguely alarmed when he appears, though he doesn’t blame given that lucky-Tsuna is currently mostly encased in a willow cage.

“How does it being both even _work_ , Reborn-san? Surely something is either fake ‘or’ real, not both?!” His lips curve into a smile. Poor Shoichi was going to have a headache now that Shamal was in Namimori; the man’s diseases were illusionary, but they had entirely ‘real’ effects. Like the one that had rewritten Smokin’ Bomb’s transplanted organs’ genetics while he was in an induced coma; Shamal had had to hand-code the process. He forms himself a chair, shaping it out of the Earth, receiving a slightly scandalised look from Takeshi for some reason, and relaxes back into it. “Flames are a fantastic way to _seemingly_ break the fundamental laws. They don’t; there are solutions to the equations that allow for their presence.” He had a brief moment of smugness about the fact that he was responsible for finding all but one of the solutions. “I’ll show you the proofs later; I suspect that you’ll appreciate them, Shoichi.”

The Forest’s eyes light at the promise of more scientific information about Flames and the way they interact with ‘real’ Science, and lucky-Tsuna, still imprisoned in his willow cage which, he noticed, had gained a moat at this point sighs, and shakes his head. “Reborn! Trying to manage Sho-chan _before_ you came along and waved actual Flames in front of him was bad enough - hiiieee, Sho-chan! Not in front of Reborn!” Some of the willow branches had quite clearly worked their way under lucky-Tsuna’s clothing, and he pinched the bridge of his nose again and reminded himself that they were a honeymooning set. 

“Sorry, Tsu-kun.” The willow tendrils retreat, and his silly student snags Sho-chan’s hand through the willow cage protecting him from the Seal-shards, and pulls him in. (Lucky-Tsuna had already grasped the nature of the flamescape at least subconsciously, and would need praise and coaxing into making the subconscious knowledge into _conscious_ knowledge.)

“I wasn’t telling you _never_ to do it, Sho-chan.” He ignores the sound of a kiss as punctuation and the whine from Takeshi, who was still sat by the river, trailing his fingers in his Flames. But the scene is hollow, missing things that should be present, and in some ways it makes him ache; he wants to pull his Own into it, and Dino and his Own for lucky-Tsuna’s sake, and he dissolves it again.

“So _why_ did you do that, Reborn-san?” The question comes from Takeshi, who had pulled the two smaller boys in close to himself. “You do know that shaping other people’s flames is _rude_ , don’t you?” That had to be a difference in habit or social mores, given the way Kyōya had willing snatched control of Verde’s Flames or a set of nuances he was missing in when it was and wasn’t permissible. 

He raises an eyebrow at Takeshi. “Kyōya.”

“Kyōya-senpai is a rule onto himself, Reborn. And Verde would have caused an explosion if he _didn’t_ snatch control. But you really can affect other people’s Flames in a ’scape like that according to tou-san, and when you made your ‘throne’ -” Tsuna stretches and plants a kiss on the corner of his River’s mouth. “- I fail at words, Reborn. Please talk to tou-san about it before Fon returns and Kyōya tells him that you let Verde near him.”

“Oh I’m looking forward to Fon finding _that_ out Takeshi; I haven’t managed to get a proper fight out of him for _years_. And the part that you’re forgetting, Takeshi, is that I’m lucky-Tsuna’s sensei, and working on his Flames is something I'm _expected_ to do. With the damage your idiot father and ‘grandfather’ did to your soul, Tsuna, we’re going to have to do a lot of work in ‘your’ flamescape and in my own -” he throws the bone out; it wasn’t only Tsuna’s flames that needed work; he suspected if he concentrated on manifesting his own Earth or even his Mist in the ’scape it would be covered in scars, “- and I’ll need to your help with it.”

Lucky-Tsuna perks up. “So you can help, Kaa-chan better? I think she’d rather have your Flames supporting her than mine.”

“Something like that. But before we can work on the flamescape, the three of you need to learn to meditate -” Takeshi makes a whining sound at the back of his throat “- if you need to engage in movement, then as long as you can follow my voice and the visualisation, it’ll still work.”


	25. Chapter 25

He talks the boys through and into the core of their own Flames. He left enough leeway in the visualisation to ensure that their flamescapes would be their own, though lucky-Tsuna’s would almost certainly influence his guardians/companions’ flamescapes fairly quickly. (Without his distorting influence, pipsqueak-Dino’s Flamescape featured the rolling open hills of Tuscany and semi-mythological horses that he assumed represented Dino and Romario.) It was also possible that he’d have to help coax Takeshi into forming a compatible flamescape, given the likely influence of Shigure Kintoki and Shigure Soen Ryuu on the boy’s Flames. 

Stretching his own senses, he starts to dip into their individual mental ’scapes to see how they were doing - he starts with Shoichi, as his Flames were least likely to have ‘complications’ from what had happened over the last decade. He tumbles into a mad scientist’s lab, full of twisted glass and semi-animate plants - they certainly weren’t waving in the breeze - and it makes him smile; he’d have to see if he could help Shoichi share it with Verde who, at the very least would be very appreciative of the aesthetic the Forest had indulged in.

He slips back out of Shoichi’s flamescape, and takes a deep breath before ‘stepping’ into Takeshi, where he comes face to face with a man in full samurai armour carrying a tanto he recognises and he bows deeply. “I am sensei to your ward’s … centre, Kintoki-sama. I am here to confirm that Takeshi’s Flames are healthy and that he’ll be able to remain comfortably ensconced in my student’s Flames.”

“If you bring a child of my line to the Administrator’s attention and I lose another to its abomination of a curse, I will shred your soul to the point where you will unable even to join the walking dead you call the Vindice.” 

“Creature?” He raises an eyebrow.

“He would not be the first youkai I have been used to kill - or attempt to kill - and I know the difference in taste between human and not. I would like a second taste of his blood and his soul; he was delicious.”

“Tsuyoshi said that you’d lost a wielder to the curse and others had been killed attempting to enact vengeance on him.”

“I was furious, and still learning ‘self-control’; I have no intention of taking Takeshi -” he’d swear the Sword was amused, “- or Tsuyoshi up against the Administrator unless things change, or an opportunity to stab it in the back with my tantō form arises. Even if it is skulking around Namimori again.” He sucks in a breath. Checkerface was _here_?! “Tsuyoshi and Takeshi are my only wielders. Get them killed -”

Even if he’s being threatened, he can’t help but think of the way Tsuyoshi had looked at his new Sky and his fellow Guardians and some of Shamal and Verde’s skills. “That might not continue to be a problem Kintoki-sama; Tsuyoshi is besotted by his new set and his Sky is looking to settle down.”

The Sword hums in amusement. “And I approve of little Tsuna; I have ways of adapting to my wielders having Skies and Earths, and now you’ve taught him how to access his flamescape, we can … negotiate.” He raises an eyebrow and Kintoki-sama takes the helmet off, grins and steps aside. He blinks and the Sword vanishes, laughing. He shakes his head, careful not to throw himself out of the flamescape, but not sure if he’d just seen what he’d seen; Kintoki-sama had looked just like Takeshi. He takes a step forward, and nearly panics as water fills his lungs, and he has to remind himself that it’s an entirely mental construct. 

Takeshi’s flamescape is underwater, fish darting back and forth and Takeshi himself dancing through kata at its centre, and he will have to congratulate Tsuyoshi on raising his boy so very well. The flamescape is calm, content and safe, and he could spend hours basking in it. The Sword rematerialises, still grinning, and Takeshi slows, leans back into his arms trustingly and he shuts his eyes and leaves the flamescape before he sees anything else; he’d learnt his lesson with Dino.

Which leaves him with Tsuna, and he steels himself before stepping into it; even in the more generic ‘teaching’ flamescape he’d created, there had been the shattered shards of the Seal scarring it, some hiding in the shadows and others pocking the ‘Earth’ like meteor-craters.

His first thought is that it _fits_ his newest student, and he can see where the others’ Flames will weave in when he teaches lucky-Tsuna or Hayato how to craft the full flamescape. His second is that he’s not sure he can hurt baka-Timoteo and Idiotsu _enough_ to make up for what they’ve done to lucky-Tsuna. The garden should be _beautiful_ , but the scars are deep, flowers and leaves bleached bone white by the absence of the Sky Flames the boy should have had. There were at least a handful of dazzling fragments of Sky Flames - the gift of Tsuna and Dino’s initial snap bond - illuminating small patches of flowers and ‘colouring’ them in.

“No further, Arcobaleno. Our grandson doesn’t need your curse making the damage worse.” The words are spoken quietly, in Church Latin, and he stills. “Work out how to use your Flames to shield him from it, and we’ll help you work with him to repair the damage. I doubt he will ever be able to wear the Rings; he only has the young Cavallone’s gifted Sky Flames now.”

He turns around slowly; he recognises the first of the figures. How could he not? Even if baka-Timoteo didn’t have that painting of Giotto di Vongola in his private office, the resemblance to lucky-Tsuna was startling. The second figure he doesn’t recognise, but he and Giotto’s body language says that they are ‘friends’ and he recognises bits of lucky-Tsuna’s bone structure that aren’t exact matches to Giotto’s in him - the same ones his student had gotten from Nana.

“I recognise you, Giotto, but your companion’s identity escapes me.” His Church Latin is halting, the legacy of Daniela’s insistence that he learn, because it was the Alliance’s lingua franca and the language of the Vongola Archives. Which made sense, given the fluid nature of Sicilian; there had been handwritten notes - Secondo’s work - that were almost impossible to read because of linguistic changes, and it had taken Xanxus three years to be able to translate them and to be fairly sure his word choices were correct.

“Cozart Simon. Giotto is Sky to my Earth, much like the young Cavallone is Sky to our Tsuna.” The redhead’s accent is less polished that Giotto’s, but still more fluent than his own. “And as to your next question, while Giotto regrets Iemitsu’s existence, I’m very proud of Nana.” 

“Ah. That explains the ‘our’, but not why you’re here; Kintoki-sama’s presence in Takeshi’s Flames made sense, given a number of factors, but surely you two should be … elsewhere?”

“Our Tsuna needs us; that Seal should never have been used on him, and until the young Cavallone willingly shared his Sky with him, we needed to moderate and modulate his Flames for him. Imagine a hurt and distressed six-year-old with Active Earth Flames and a child’s imagination.” He winces. “Exactly. And it came with perks; we haven’t managed to spend this much time together since we died. Talbott omitted some information about the Flame Rings he made us.”

He perks up, and Giotto raises an eyebrow. “What about that makes you so happy, Arcobaleno?”

“If I can get hold of the Vongola Rings, could I speak to Daniela, Giotto?”

“Potentially. But you’d need to have a Vongola capable of wearing the Rings and willing to cooperate with you; the Rings are heavily protected, -”

“I remember. Settimo and some of his Guardians was killed by Blackshirts, and their Rings killed half a dozen of them before Daniela led a raid to get them back.” 

“Mmm. You were all she could think about when she put the Ring on. And then you were Stupid enough to take the I Prescelti Sette bait and spoiled things.” He flinches as Giotto glares at him. “Even if she wasn’t _my_ descendent, she was my baby brother’s, and she’d have married you. Timoteo? The only time I’ve talked to him was when he first put on the Ring, and he was a disappointment, but at the time, the only option available. If Daemon hadn’t been plotting _something_ , I’d have sent him to Japan to see if any of my descendants had _any_ interest in being the Vongola Sky.”

“Yes, well. That’s all in the past, and as far as I’m concerned there are some benefits, Gio-koi. We get to talk more, and maybe our adorable, uh, grandson will be good for Enma - and getting Nana back to my darling Miki will be good for the Islands as a whole. She’s been pouting for years.” 

“Miki?”

“Nana’s older sister, and one of the three Earths that keeps our Islands from suffering earthquakes or eruptions, while the Deserts keep the Islands from being rediscovered.” Which would explain why Fon hadn’t been able to find them, especially if they were actively working on concealing them, and given the way that Tsuyoshi’s Flames fed Kyōya and Takeshi’s Flames, a Storm would almost certainly feed and amplify a Desert … and the effects of their Flames. “Leave us to tutor our grandson in his Flames, Reborn, and concentrate on encouraging him to meditate and skills we can’t teach him - like stamina, and the shape of the modern underworld - and we’ll encourage him to teach you, to reinforce what he learns from us.”

He blinks, and the two of them take advantage of the moment to shove him out of their ‘grandson’s’ flamescape. He shakes his head, clearing his vision, and looks at the puppy pile in front of him; whilst Shoichi was serene and calm, Takeshi had a very fetching blush on his cheeks and Tsuna looked more than a little confused, which given that he’d probably been pounced on by a blonde döppelganger of himself, and a male version of his mother, was not surprising.

He leaves the boys to meditate and stretches, and steps outside the dojo; Tsuyoshi steps out from the restaurant ten minutes later, while he’s basking in the sun - a feeble substitute for Daniela, or his own stolen Flames - and sits down next to him in seiza. “You weren’t kidding about Dino’s generosity with his Sky; I haven’t been able to sit in seiza comfortable since Takeshi-kun was a toddler.”

“Have you had a conversation with Kintoki-sama recently, Tsuyoshi?”

“Mmmm. Yes. It was entertaining … he appreciates Dino, and thinks Tsuna is adorable.”

“You’ve done an excellent job with Takeshi, by the way; before Kintoki-sama distracted him, he and his Flames were incredibly serene.” Tsuyoshi smiles. 

“I’m glad. Has Shamal always been so … flexible?”

“He’s a Mist. It’s not uncommon, but I haven’t seen him so comfortably fluid for several decades; not since he carried Lavina.” Tsuyoshi’s eyes go wide, and he smiles. “I suspect that he might be feeling a little broody, too, and I doubt Kintoki-sama would object to having a few more Asari to watch over …” 

“You are a shameless matchmaker and mama-bear, aren’t you, Reborn? You’ve been at it since you arrived, and from what Romario said, you did it in Italy, too.” 

“I just prefer to see my students happy and stable, Tsuyoshi. All of my students are above-average Flame Users; once you reach a certain level of strength and purity having a Sky, or for a Sky having Guardians becomes more necessary.”

The Rain hums, his lips curving into a smile. “You’re such a Westerner sometimes, Reborn, though, given the result, I’m not going to complain _this_ time.” He raises an eyebrow at the man who chuckles and rises out of seiza. “Perhaps I should orchestrate a meeting between Touma and Dino?”

"Only if you kick Shamal out of bed so he and I can finish evaluating Tsuna's potential Mountain."

"That I can do, even if Dino will pout."

"He has a course of study to design, and a dinner to attend in a few hours, so do try to resist the temptation to succumb to his wiles, Tsuyoshi." The Rain smiles, and he shake his head as Tsuyoshi vanishes back inside, and he slips back into the dojo to check on his students and wait for Shamal.


	26. Chapter 26

“You’re a cruel bastard, Reborn.” Shamal is slightly flushed, and wearing fresh clothes with a distinctly feminine cut, though the man had toned things down somewhat since the previous evening. 

“And yet you still answer my calls.”

“You generally offer interesting puzzles as bribes to do so.”

“Well I have another one for you; Nana identified that lucky-Tsuna already has a Mountain. I’ve laid the preliminary groundwork with the boy’s parents - he also has a sister who is slowly Activating as a Sky - but I need your help, and that of one of Dino’s men to make a full assessment. I _think_ he’s stuck in a low-level version of Dying Will Mode; it would explain some of my observations …” Shamal straightens, the white coat that he tended to favour materialising out of his Flames as he shifted into ‘professional’ mode, rather than continuing to be cranky about his ‘playtime’ being interrupted. 

“Sustained? How long, and what physical effects has it had on him?”

“He’s got a very European build, and if I couldn’t feel the Flames he’s radiating, I’d assume he’d been using steroids.”

“Just as well for lucky-Tsuna that that’s probably a side effect of his Flames; things would be disappointing for him otherwise …” He shakes his head in amusement at the fact that Shamal had taken things _there_ , but given the issues around honeymooning sets, and Shamal’s normal masks it hadn’t been unexpected once he’d mentioned ‘steroids’. Leon crawls down his arm, and shifts into a motorbike clearly too large for _him_ to control, and he pouts at his companion-animal. Shamal _laughs_ at him, assuming that with Leon shifted, he wouldn’t be able to shoot him. He takes great delight in throwing one of his hold-out knives at him, which catches the Mist by surprise. “Fuck you, Reborn. I’m going back to my Sky’s bed.”

“Then you don’t get to investigate the puzzle that I’m waving in front of you.” Shamal grumbles and pulls the knife out of his thigh, the skin visibly knitting together again as he does so. “If you’re not careful, I’ll set lucky-Tsuna’s Glacier on you, as well as on pipsqueak-Dino, Shamal.”

“Pftt. And if you do so, I’ll just infect the brat with something annoying but non-fatal. Vagina Dentata, perhaps?” He shudders at the image. “No, female Clouds are even worse than the male ones, and that disease is female only so I’d have to de-ball him first. Hmm. I know one of the diseases I have has priapism as a side effect; I use it for stamina, but if I …” he tunes out Shamal’s threat, and jumps up onto the back of the bike. “… stab me in the kidney, and I’ll infect you with skullitis, Reborn.” 

“That would be inelegant.”

“… for fuck’s sake Reborn, stop fucking with me, or I go back to bed. I have a _Home_ , Reborn. One who _thoroughly_ appreciates me and has already told me that he doesn’t expect me to kill for him, and offered to set me up in a fully-equipped medical suite _if_ that’s what _I_ want. Do you know how fucking long I’ve waited for that sort of offer?”

“Almost as long as I have, brat, and at least you didn’t have your Home snatched away from you.” Shamal’s mouth shuts with a snap, and the Mist tries to cover for it by revving Leon, but he feels the shocked-grief-sorrow in the man’s Flames, and he softens slightly. “I hadn’t gotten as far with Daniela as you have with Dino, and what Luce did was perverse, and part of why I want to change the Mafia.” 

(It had been Lal that had shouted that message into his head, had flipped the roles in what had happened and pointed out the way he raged at the very idea of it, and he still wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about being hit by that clue-by-four.) 

“Take the first left and the third right, and then follow the Sky Flames that aren’t pipsqueak-Dino’s; Ryohei Sasagawa is very determined to protect his baby-sister even if he’s from the wrong spectrum to formally act as her Guardian; I was thinking that pipsqueak-Dino might take her under his wing so she has teeth by the time the wider Mafia find Namimori again.” Shamal guns Leon and he holds on, small hands around a narrower than standard waist, and the wind whistles as they speed through Namimori, Shamal unerringly following the shed trail from the younger Sasagawa child. 

They find the pair of them out of school, too; he raises an eyebrow and wonders if it was only Kyoya’s presence that normally kept the average Nami-student in school on any given day, or if Kusakabe had decided that while the cat was distracted, the mice deserved a day to play. Which they probably did, given that Kyoya was such a very classic Cloud - even if he wasn’t officially a Cloud anymore - and probably bruised half of them on the average day, before one of the boy’s Suns healed them again. Shamal parks Leon about two hundred yards away from the seething mass of Sky and Mountain Flames, and he pinches the bridge of his nose as his Misty-student lifts him onto his shoulder. “At least we should get some idea of his fighting capabilities, and the state of her Flames.” 

The answer is that she’s definitely Active; there’s no mistaking the Flames she’s trying to calm her brother with, though they slide off him without doing what she clearly wants them to do, which is to stand down and back away from the fight that’s about to break out. The boy at least doesn’t throw the first punch, but he does end the fight with brutal speed, the yakuza’s knuckle dusters disintegrating against his skin, and he hums thoughtfully. “You’re right; Dino’s going to find her adorable, and he wears a very similar mask.”

“And your thoughts on him?” The little Sky scowls and he raises an eyebrow as the orange Flames flow over the two yakuza and they start to disintegrate - was that Wrath, or was it a property of Sky Flames that he hadn’t coaxed Dino into demonstrating for him? He could think of ways to do it with Sky Flames, and in some ways was surprised that Daniela hadn’t thought of them, though most of her solutions to Blackshirt corpses were as much about the theatrics of the situation as anything else.

“Been Active for at least five years. God help you if you want to make him shift directions; I’m guessing that Mountain is the Lightning parallel, but he didn’t start off that way. Probably was a Sun and solidified for lucky-Tsuna. Coaxing him out of that state he occupies and avoiding his little sister learning his bad habits is going to be … interesting.”

“All that from one fight?” Shamal gives him a hurt look, and he shrugged his shoulders. “You’ve got a brand new distraction, and it’s easy to forget you’re almost as old as I am, brat.”

Shamal strides towards the two teens, and he balances on his shoulders, and lets his Misty-student concentrate on avoiding the girl freaking out - even if it was a little tricky, Mist could be used to soothe - whilst he tried to radiate Earth Flames at lucky-Tsuna’s Mountain, projecting a sort of calm stability it had taken him more than half century to learn. (He still enjoyed causing chaos for the sake of chaos, but he’d learned the art of standing in the middle of the chaos he’d created, the one point of stability left. People would swarm to him for that stability, and then he could _thoroughly_ fuck with their heads. It was fun.)

Her head snaps up, snarling, and Shamal puts his hands up. The gesture makes her calm a little and he swears silently; Shamal had been thoroughly and completely covered and claimed by Dino, and she was likely working purely on instincts - especially given her parents seemed to have lost any knowledge of the Underworld - and if she’d been exposed to what happened to lucky-Tsuna, and subconsciously catalogued it the way that Skies seemed to do, then a Sky she didn’t know was a threat. “Got a fragment of lucky-Tsuna’s Flames, Reborn? Or something else that’ll make it clear we’re not the Stupid Shits who crippled her classmate?”

“Lean harder into that new bond of yours; if nothing else the Cloud element of pipsqueak-Dino’s Flames should make him feel _very_ different from Idiotsu and baka-Timoteo, and trust that I’ll knock her out before she tries to immolate you.”

“If you get me out of bed before midday tomorrow, I’m testing angelitis on you.” The non-sequitur is followed by Shamal’s Flame profile shifting until his Mist vanishes almost entirely under Dino’s very Cloudy-Sky. The younger Sasagawa’s posture eases, and her brother looks almost disappointed for a moment. 

“What made me want to fight you?” 

The girl slaps a hand over her own mouth, cheeks pinking, and there’s a laughing “I knew you’d EXTREMELY want to fight when you found a reason, Kyoko-chan!” 

“Ryohei!”

“I believe your mother told you that you were going to get some tutoring, Ryohei?”

The boy bounces on his toes. “She EXTREMELY said that I was going to get to learn about medicine with a doctor, and have somewhere safe to fight!” 

“He reminds me of how Lal described Colonello when he first ‘fell’ into her hands after he escaped the fascists; we might want to move up that trip up to Mafia Island - it might be easiest for Colonello to reach him.” Shamal’s words are murmured in Italian. “Any objections to me forcibly turning down his volume for a bit? It’ll stop me doing anything worse to him.”

“As long as it’s non-permanent, go ahead. But wait until we’ve split them up.” 

“You’re a _doctor_?” The question comes from the girl - such an adorably suspicious little Sky - and his lips curve. 

“We both are actually, though my doctorate is in mathematics; I have a growth disorder.” She gives him a very pointed look, one that says - at least to him - that she is an off-shoot of the Sawada clan as _well_ as being a descendant of Knuckle, and he’ll have to make sure she has a Mist or is elsewhere when Idiotsu makes it back to Namimori, just in case. “If you’ve got a doctorate in mathematics, why are you tutoring Tsuna-kun?”

“I owed his ‘grandmother’ a favour; now, though, it’s because he’s entertaining to teach.”

“But would Tsuna-kun say you’re entertaining to study with?”

“Probably not. But he’s still adjusting to the idea of a tutor, and that he actually has Family beyond his mother.” The girl has a backbone, which bodes well for what would happen when she’s noticed by someone outside of Namimori; he’d hate to see another young female Sky swept off her feet and used to breed an heir for a Don the way Timoteo had. (He had given up being generous to him years ago; perhaps the woman had truly been satisfied with her lifestyle, but he’d been able to feel her latent Flames and had always itched to see what would happen if he shot her with a Dying Will Bullet and Timoteo had to cope with an equally strong-willed Sky as his wife.)

“You sound EXTREMELY - ow! - concerned about Tsuna-kun, Kyoko-chan.

“Someone has to be Ryohei-nii.” The Mountain pouts at his little sister. “Don’t give me that look, Ryohei-nii. If I didn’t, you’d have squished Tsuna-kun last year, and I’d have had to deal with a scared Tsuna-kun and a broken-hearted Ryohei-nii.” He raises an eyebrow and Shamal laughs out loud.

“Oh, Dino is going to adore teaching you to use that orange flame power of yours, kid.”

“Hiiieee! You saw that?” There’s a flicker of Sky Flames in the exclamation, and had she learned that from lucky-Tsuna, or had lucky-Tsuna learnt it from her?

Shamal rolls his eyes and opens a hand to show a palmful of Dino’s purple-tinged Sky Flames. “Given we’re here to tutor lucky-Tsuna and any others we find in Namimori - for whom tutoring would be … appropriate - in how to use their Flames, ignoring obvious Flame use would be counter-productive.” What Shamal left unsaid was that he and his students’ ideas of appropriate were at significant odds with Timoteo and Iemitsu’s; he’d already pushed two people Active without indoctrinating them, and would likely do so with more, and he was planning for pipsqueak-Dino to teach Kyoko to fight and lead, not just submit meekly to a Sky husband.

Her chin comes up, and there’s a certain imperiousness there that will be entertaining to hone - if she’d spent the last five years matching her Will against that of her older brother, a Mountain - and according to Nana, the embodiment of stubborn - and _succeeding_ , she would be _glorious_ when she was trained. “Then my Hana will need training, too.”

Oh, that was promising; it suggested that she already had a Guardian candidate. Probably a Rain given that it seemed to be the most common Flame-type in Namimori. He hums chaotically. “Deal.”


	27. Chapter 27

He leaves Shamal to corral the two of them; the last thing he hears as he vanishes is Shamal's firm injunction that Ryohei is to run a  _minimum_  of four miles before they try and sit down to study, and that he'd be ordering a stationary bike to ensure that the Mountain - who still had the bounciness of an Active Sun - could study, and Kyoko's audible sigh of relief that  _someone_  else had an idea of how to manage her oniisan.

Now what else did he need to do? He checks his watch and hums thoughtfully; he could trust Tsuyoshi to ensure Dino, Romario, Shoichi, Takeshi, and Tsuna made it to Nana's for dinner, but he probably should check on what Kyoya and Hayato were up to, and then Skull. The purple menace hadn't shown up yet, which was odd; he was indulging in chaos, and that normally brought him running to join in. Hmmm. Phone the menace, or crank up the chaos; both had potential ...

Or he could create more chaos by phoning the purple menace, and testing out a personal hypothesis by mentioning Nana and Miki; given the way Skull was capable of disappearing from Viper's perview without an illusion Flame and that he'd been the first of the Arcobaleno to try and court him as Home - Leon shifts, and he holds the resulting sat-phone to his ear. "Who dares to disturb the great Skull-sama?!"

"Not this time, please, Skull. I'm not in Italy so you don't need to be ridiculous."

" _Spoilsport_."

"If you're with Miki, I found her Nana." The ringing silence on the other end of the line tells him he had guessed right. "And she has a son, an Earth like her o-nee-san." He gives Skull a moment to process, then grins and crowns his chaos. "Nana's my Swamp."

"I think you broke our Skull, stranger-sama. Can you share the good news, or do I need to hold smelling salts under his nose?" Her Japanese has a  _very_  peculiar accent, one that he's heard in odd words of Nana's speech.

"I think that the smelling salts option would be more fun, Miki-san."

"Oh, I'm not Miki, stranger-sama, but I can fetch her if you can tell me what your relationship to Skull is - and where you heard the name Miki."

"Skull's been courting me to be his Earth, on-and-off, for almost a century, and as to where I heard the name Miki, I'd prefer to tell her specifically, but I have found something that was stolen from her." A klaxon sounds in the background, and there's a disharmonious sound and the sound of running feet. The call isn't disconnected, though, and he realises with a laugh what's just happened. "Why are you laughing, stranger-sama?"

"The attack isn't an attack, nor it is malicious; I set one of Skull and I's colleagues to try and find more information about Earth Flames and apparently he's been  _very_  'efficient' this time. Perhaps the traces of his grandson's Flames on him helped him find the Islands?"

"Skull, your Earth says it's one of your colleagues and it's his fault he's trying to break in; please go and tell him to stop trying to breach the protections on the Islands." There's an incoherent sound of protest. "I'll send him back to you - with our current nuisance in tow - but I think Skull might be a little annoyed once he's processed things; expect him in a couple of days." He makes an amused sound and lets the call disconnect.

Perhaps he should warn Kyoya about his grandfather's return? He whistles a chaotic little tune and ambles in the direction of the complex of buildings that made up Namimori's main three schools - even if he was no longer a Cloud, Kyoya had a few of the traits, and one of them was a desire to nest in the centre of his territory - in search of the little demon and the Smoking Bomb.

(And to stymie the boys; they'd shown remarkable restraint the previous night, but of all of them, Kyoya and Hayato were the ones that he was slightly concerned about; older than the others, and in Hayato's case, already having explored some of the ... options.)

The school is deserted, and he snickers as he realises why; two experimenting illusionists have reality a little ropey within the main building, and it's only his own illusion Flame and his exposure to Viper that are allowing him to ignore the things trying to creep up on him. He stalks through the building towards the two of them, wrapped in his Earth Flames and laughing at the illusions that sneak through; they're exactly where he suspected they would be: in Kyoya's lair. He doesn't bother to knock; after training Shamal and Dino, he was virtually unshockable, and he doubted that the boys had failed to notice his progress through their accidental traps.

"Taiyo-jiichan, I said that I would return the new carnivore in time for dinner with the female omnivore."

"Didn't your actual jii-chan tell you that letting me get bored is a bad idea, oi-chan?" The boy had definitely been trained by Viper; the illusion that tries to capture his attention definitely has the taste of something the miser would do, and used  _both_  the boy's Flames. "Oh you have to try harder than  _that_ , oi-chan; I sharpened my sense on Viper's illusions before our curse 'tamed' them."

"Kyoya, you're trying to beat an Arcobaleno at a game he's proven adept at playing. Are you  _mad_?!"

“Hn." There's a kissing sound and a sigh, and Smoking Bomb's head, complete with ruffled hair, appears over the back of the couch.

"Sorry about this, Reborn."

"Don't apologise to him, new-carnivore. The Arcobaleno are here to teach, and if we do not test our teeth on them, how do they know where we need extra training. Loan me your strength, and we will see if we can daze him, and I'll reward you ..."

"Go on Smoking Bomb; forget my reputation. You're one of my student's Guardians, and I have every intention of teaching you everything you need to know to keep him alive." The Desert - he'd been so sure the boy was a Storm, but having an illusion flame made much more sense of why Shamal had tolerated him as an informal apprentice for so long - tilts his head thoughtfully. He waits, and almost misses the start of the illusion; he'll have to tell Shamal that his grandson and apprentice had learned from him, even if he hadn't intended to teach him this subset of his skills. It's a whole lot more subtle than Kyoya's first attempt to catch him.

He fixes in his head that he's facing two partially trained but over-powered illusionists but he has to fight to hold onto the thought because rather than trying to fool his eyes, or his other senses, there are tendrils of their Flames curling against his, distracting him, and more building  _something_  around him. He realises what it is with a curse when he's suddenly treading water and he has to make a rapid assessment of whether he's in an illusion or he's just been transported and he curses them both for their creativity when he registers that Leon isn't there.

He splutters and swims ashore, fairly sure that they had transported him up until the point where the bank starts to disintegrate. That could be Storm Flames to bait him into assuming that it's an illusion, but he doesn't think it is; Kyoya used pre-existing constructs to manage transportation, so it was likely a limit on the illusion he was trapped in. He doggy-paddles, buying himself time to decide exactly what he was going to do. He was tempted just to use his Sun Flames to disintegrate the illusion but that wouldn't teach the boys anything, whereas forcing it to unravel  _would_. Even knowing that there was a flaw, it took him a few moments to find enough of a crack to wedge his own Flames into and to set it unravelling, but he does.

"You're surprisingly good already. You'll be even better when I'm done with you." Kyoya's eyes narrow, but Hayato's hand on his arm seemed to restrain the temperamental Glacier from launching a more physical attack. "Don't worry, oi-chan; your jii-chan will be back within the week if you want someone to defenestrate." The Glacier snarls, and Smoking Bomb laughs, and he chooses to offer Kyoya a bone. "I was expecting an illusion; the real trick is in not letting your victim  _know_  that they're dealing with one. Make it subtle, and they'll fill any details you miss in themselves. It's why Shamal is so effective; his viruses are illusions which trick the body at a micro level, causing a very 'real' response."

Hayato nods; Shamal had probably explained why once one of his viruses was established they were so hard to eradicate from the system. "Was jii-chan's return the only reason you interrupted, taiyo-jiichan?" The sandy Desert Flames ripple and he shakes his head as they try and twine around him again. "Did we lose track of time?"

"Something like that; I was actually hoping you had the paperwork I needed to start the slow withdrawal from Nami-chuu of your whole set, Kyoya-oi. You forgot to bring it with you to Takesushi." The Glacier makes a grumbly sound, but kneels down at his working table, and retrieves - and promptly replicates - a dozen sheets of paper.

"Do you need me to translate these, taiyo-jiichan, or is your written Japanese adequate?" He raises an eyebrow at the cheeky brat.

"I have been visiting Japan since before the Fated Day, oi-chan, and my written Japanese is  _excellent_ ; I have even published mathematical papers in Japanese." He sits at the table, legs crossed, and speeds through the papers, infusing the ink with a little of his Mist Flame so that the words will say what need to be said. (It's another trick he picked up, from Daniela's Mist; it was by far the easiest way to forge papers that they'd found and they'd smuggled a lot of people out of fascist Italy with them.) When he pushes them back across the table to the Glacier, Kyoya runs fingers over the words thoughtfully, and he suspects that he may find himself in trouble with Hibari Touma for 'teaching' Kyoya that trick.

"Hn." Kyoya looks up, eyes flicking to the clock and then nods decisively. "It is time to return to the female carnivore's home." Hayato pinches the bridge of his nose and shakes his head. Kyoya ignores him, and the building sort of 'folds' and they're back at the front door of the school; he hops up onto Smoking Bomb, and the three of them amble back through Namimori, pausing several times for Kyoya to bite delinquents to death ... he allows it because each biting seems to calm the boy down, and they have plenty of time in which to get back to Nana's before she'll be serving dinner at that impossible table of hers.


	28. Chapter 28

Shamal drags the older Sasawaga sibling through Nana’s front door, and is followed by the younger Sky child, who looks like a startled deer when she sees Dino coated in his Flames in response to the baby-Sky intruding into his new territory. Nana breaks the slight deadlock, by swatting Dino with a laugh. “Ara! If Kyoko-chan had been suitable to be the Sky to my son’s Earth, Dino-kun, they’d have bonded before you arrived in Japan.”

He smiles at his Swamp as she manages the room, and then laughs when he realises that despite having been completely full only moments earlier, the table now has three more seats. “But Nana -”

“No buts, young man. Ryohei-kun, why don’t you sit over there next to Tsu-kun -” Takeshi and Hayato, bracketing Tsuna look reluctant to move; Smoking Bomb appeared to be virtually glued to lucky-Tsuna’s side, but the young River sighed and shuffled over.

“You can sit in my seat, senpai, at least for now.” He rolls his eyes at his student’s swordsman and the killing intent he was trying to radiate at an immovable object.

“Not at the table, Takeshi-kun.” His student pouts at his River until he relents and the killing intent vanishes. 

“Good. I’m sure lucky-Tsuna will be willing to reward you later, Takeshi.” His student blushes and buries his head in his hands.

“Reborn, no tormenting Tsu-kun at my table.” He pouts himself at his spoilsport Swamp. “And no poking at Miki’s Table, either.” His Swamp was _mean_ , depriving him of his entertainment, but she does put a bowl of the sunshine-egg rice with some of the same very tastily-seasoned meat as she had fed lucky-Tsuna for that first celebration meal, and some vegetables that he realises must be her improvisation to acknowledge his Mist Flames and he beams at her, causing her eyes to light up. Shamal has a larger portion of the vegetables he has, and some of the rice and nut dish that Nana had put in front of Hayato, and he has to work hard to stop himself eavesdropping on the three-way conversation that breaks out between Shamal and the boy, and Fon’s grandson. “You enjoyed the Sichuan buttons, Verde-san, so I engaged in a little experimentation with your dessert, and combined them with one of the glacier recipes I remembered; you’ll have to tell me what you think.”

“Nana-san, what’s making the salad all tingly on my tongue -” his eyes widen; he’d pegged the honey-roast-meat as an attempt at a Sky dish, and that Dino had some of the sun-rice Nana had fed him earlier in the week, but he’d thought the salad ‘greens’ - half of them were purple - were about the cloudiness his Sky-student boy had the tendency to break out in. Thinking about it though, he could see the mild Electric tendencies now that he was looking for them; the way Dino had a tendency to insta-bond with those suitable, and the growl at the baby-Sky Shamal had brought home.

“Ara; the way you growled at Kyoko-chan made me think you were a bit like Verde-san, so I sprinkled a few Sichuan buttons on your salad, Dino-kun.” His silly Sky-student blushes, and folds a little bit, and Tsuyoshi leans over and ruffles his hair affectionately, and makes a small surprised sound when Dino leans into it, and almost purrs. 

“Your sister may show up in the next few days, Nana; apparently Fon only needed a little bit of a push to find the islands, and a certain purple menace of mine made an appearance in the process.” His Swamp looks stunned; lucky-Tsuna was bouncing in his chair, and everyone else had stopped eating, being aware of her story at least in part.

“Miki, _here_?!”

“We’ll take precautions, Nana. I’m sure Kyōya will speak to his clan, and there’ll be five Arcobaelno on you and your sister’s side if Idiotsu shows up.” The slip is unintentional, but it breaks the ice; Dino’s the first one to break out in giggles, and then Shamal and Bianchi and Hayato - whose laughs are all very similar - and that’s enough for the rest of the table.

“That would make me feel better, Reborn.” He hums chaotically; he was almost tempted to have Lal trick Iemitsu into walking into the meat grinder he’d just described, but he wanted to give Nana a chance to have a _peaceful_ meeting with her older sister. He wouldn’t get to keep the Idiot alive long enough to feed him to baka-Timoteo, if he went with that thought, either. 

“Verde, Reborn said something, and I got the feeling he wasn’t joking. Can you teach me necromancy?”

“Sho-chan, _no_!”  
“Verde, don’t you fucking dare.”  
“Ooh, that sounds interesting -”  
“- Hayato, I love you as a sister, but I will spank you if you start raising the dead.”

“But necromancy’s just about _speaking_ to the dead. And Flame Ghosts are a thing, sis -” Bianchi leaned over and thwapped her younger brother over the back of the head. “- I just want to finally get to speak to mom.” Lucky-Tsuna drags his Desert - the boy’s luck really is ridiculous - into his lap, and Bianchi melts, and he eyes her thoughtfully; she would make a good Swamp for his student, and would give Lucky-Tsuna a different point of view on the Italian Mafia. Hayato had run, but she’d stayed longer, and still was technically the Falco heiress.

“No raising her from the dead, -” 

“Have you read the Discworld novels, Shoichi?” The Forest nods. “Flame Ghosts are comparatively easy to talk to; you merely need something imbued with enough of their Flames to ‘pull’ them into existence, but raising people from the dead needs a fresh corpse and a Strong Will - think Igor rather than wizard.” He doesn’t want to know more, and Nana comes to his rescue, leaning over the table to shove a spoonful of ice cream in his Glacier’s mouth, and he’s not sure where she pulled it from.

“Science does not belong at the table, boys; and if you raise anyone from the dead, they’re your responsibility to look after and prevent from becoming … hungry.” Hayato looks at her and tilts his head.

“Zombies?”

“I was more thinking of gaki and jikininki but yes; if someone you manage to raise turns into a classic Hollywood zombie that decides they enjoys brains, I will be very cross, Hayato-kun.” Shoichi blushes and scribbles a note, and then leans up to murmur something in Hayato’s ear, and he turns his attention away from his student and the mad scientists of the group, trusting that Nana’s disapproval and Tsuna’s supervision would keep them from doing anything _too_ Stupid, and turns his attention to his student’s Mountain and the baby Sky the boy had ‘brought’ to his attention. 

“So what did Shamal tell you after I left to hunt down Kyōya, Ryohei?”

But it’s Kyoko that answers, and Ryohei lets her. “That Tsuna-kun was like me, with the orange fire, and that it was part of what attracted o-nii-san to him. And when Tsuna-kun’s gaijin ‘father’ -” he could hear the apostrophes dropped around the word,and he agrees, “- took away those Flames, Ryohei followed him down to where they could still be each other’s.” 

“Kyoko-chan -” 

“O-nii-san, yes, I would have liked you to be my Guardian, but I have Hana-chan and Shamal-san even explained why we’d have been a bad Sky-Sun pair.” He’s a little relieved; two or more Skies arguing over who an element belonged to could get _messy_. “And Shamal looked at Hana-chan and said that I’d have my hands full with my Cloud -”

He buries his head in his hands for a long moment. What had he done to earn himself this? He hadn’t killed anyone for _ages_. “You have a _Cloud_ for your first Guardian. I’m making you pipsqueak-Dino’s problem; he might have a Sun as his own Guardian, but he at least _met_ Tiberia -” Kyoko made a curious sound. “- Dino, tell Kyoko about Tiberia; she’s reminding her of me.” His Sky-student’s eyes light up; his great-grandmother had been one of his very favourite people, and he’d always assumed that his father’s cancer had been a dying curse from the women for how badly he’d fucked things up. It was just a shame that she’d underestimated how long he’d survive.

How had he not noticed Ryohei lifting lucky-Tsuna into his lap? Or had he - he narrows his eyes at the Sky listening to Dino babble about his great-grandmother - Kyoko seemed to have come up with uses for her Flames to protect her brother, so had she just blurred things, the way Daniela used to?

He sighs and pinches his nose. Kyoko could be Dino’s problem; this time he eavesdrops shamelessly, wanting to be sure about Ryohei. (Takeshi at least looked a lot happier now that he could wriggle back along the bench and there wasn’t a Mountain between him and lucky-Tsuna.) His Earth-student was blushing, but he doubted they’d do anything _too_ outrageous at Nana’s table. 

“You’ve been EXTREMELY evading me, and Kyoko-chan has been EXTREMELY mean stopping me from chasing you -” he bites the inside of his cheek. Ryohei was going to fit right in. “- can I chase you now, Tsuna-kun? It would be fun -”

“Hiiiee. Ryohei -”

“That sounds like a fun idea, Ryohei-senpai. Tsuna?”

“No chasing me around Namimori, either of you!”

“Does that mean _I_ can chase you, little carnivore?”

“ _Kyōya_.”

“Your Family has several islands; can I hunt you around _them_?”

“If you must, Kyōya. But not with _witnesses_!” The Glacier settles down on the other side of his student, Flames purring, and he sighs, and makes an indignant sound as he finds himself pulled into Nana’s lap. 

“Stop worrying about them, Reborn and enjoy the meal; they’ll work out some of their outrageousness within a few weeks.”

“Dino hasn’t.”

“And if they, don’t what’s the problem, Reborn?” She keeps eating, chopsticks flashing. “Why are you so concerned?”

“Because I need them as bait for Timoteo.”

“Even for you, that’s cynical, Reborn. You’re too affectionate with the boys, and with your older students for them to be bait.” He grumbles, and Nana makes her own amused sound. She snags his bowl and pulls it across, and he resumes eating, enjoying the brush of her Flames across his. “I’d say you’re compensating for certain things, and you don’t need to put on a front for us, Reborn. How big a brood did you want?” He twitches and then freezes in place. “You’re close to a hundred years old and Italian Catholic -”

“As many as Daniela was going to be willing to have, and then I’d have adopted more.” She presses a kiss to his fluffy hair. 

“And now you have a half-dozen students, and you’ve adopted their children - I saw how you looked at Bianchi and Hayato earlier, Reborn - and you’ve been engaging in matchmaking too.” He hears the laughter in her voice. “You’d make a very good Italian grandmama, Reborn, with your entire dynasty -” his Swamp is a cruel tease, “- at your feet. Do you cook?”

“Sometimes.” She grins. 

“You’ll have to join me in the kitchen at some point, then; I think I still have the stool that I had made for Tsuna to cook with me.” He makes a small meep, one that he’ll deny, at the casual invitation into his Swamp’s kitchen; cooking with someone was _very_ intimate for him, but he’s saved from explaining the intimacy she just offered him, unthinkingly, by a flare of lucky-Tsuna’s Flames and he makes an amused sound as he realises that lucky-Tsuna’s Flames had latched onto Ryohei’s already, and were ‘sniffing’ at Bianchi’s. He shakes his head, and Nana laughs. “I told you they’d be alright, Reborn. Now, what sorts of things do you cook?”


	29. Chapter 29

“Hiiieee! Reborn -” it takes effort and the use of his own Flames to be able to breathe, and that was going to be a formidable defence against anyone who tried to kill his newest student.

“- you all need training, and I did warn you.” Lucky-Tsuna pouted at him, but gathered his Flames back into himself, and he can move again; it’s a little galling to be so much weaker than his student, and it forces him to change his teaching methods. Interestingly, the boy’s Guardians hadn’t seemed to have the same reaction to the spike in Earth Flames, so it was entirely possible that their Guardian bonds had protected them from their Earth’s overreaction to the poison dart he’d nailed Smoking Bomb with. “Hayato, explain to your Earth just how poison resistant you are, and why.”

“It wasn’t Bianchi’s fault.” His student tilts his head and he hums thoughtfully; he’d been hoping that Hayato and Bianchi had worked through their issues, and confirmation was nice, but it had potential downsides. He’d have to remind them that unless one of them wanted to have to take over the Falco, they’d have to refrain from killing their father - and he’d have to remind Shamal of the same thing. “Poison Cooking - Swamp Flames - run in the Family, and our father - well I’m not sure what he was thinking, but rather than get Bianchi training, he abused her emerging Flames in various ways -”

His student gasps; it’s nothing he was unaware of though - Don Falco’s recklessness with his daughter’s Flame had been quite obvious in the half liquified state of the Smoking Bomb’s internal organs. “Hayato -”

“Shamal fixed the issues that her Flames caused me, and she helped him to do so. She didn’t know what she was doing -” his Earth-student launches himself at Smoking Bomb and the Desert goes down under his student to amused exclamations from the others. 

“If everyone’s going to get cuddly -” He rolls his eyes as the River dives into the pile, followed by his student’s Mountain, and there’s more indignant squeaks as Takeshi and Ryohei both exploit the opportunity to touch both Hayato and lucky-Tsuna. “- aren’t you going to join us, Kyoya-senpai, Sho-chan?”

“Hn. I will pet the small carnivore later, kohai. Perhaps we should concentrate on biting taiyo-jiichan, instead?”

“Maa, maa. Our small carnivore appeals more, senpai.”

“Hn. Self-control would be an admirable quality, kohai, if you possessed it.” He snickers as Takeshi launches himself out of the pile of limbs, Shigure Kintoki’s tanto drawn, and the Glacier makes a pleased sound and draws his tonfa and the two of them launch into another impromptu sparring match.

“Hiiieee, Kyoya! Takeshi! We’re supposed to be training, not biting each other to death!”

“They look like they’re EXTREMELY having fun, though, Tsuna-kun. Couldn’t we join in?”

“ _Ryohei_ -” there’s more squeaking from the pile of limbs, “- Hayato! Not in front of Reborn! It’s not fair on him; he can’t play -” he pokes the pile with his Leon bo-staff before lucky-Tsuna says anything else, and upsets his own equilibrium. “Hiiiee, Reborn, what was that for?”

“You’ve gotten distracted from training.”

“But Reborn -”

“Intervene in your River and Glacier’s little spat and redirect their energies back to our training session; there are more tests that I want to run you all through.” Lucky-Tsuna squeaks and flails and he rolls his eyes, and his Earth-student scrambles out of the pile and throws himself towards the sparring duo. 

Shoichi steps up beside him and shakes his head, eyes fixed on the River and Glacier and lucky-Tsuna’s futile efforts to intervene between the two of them. “You’re being unnecessarily cruel, Reborn-san.”

“The chaos is amusing, and I like to torture my students just a little more than I should admit. Dino still has trauma when it comes to brown bears; I don’t know why - it’s not like they ate one of his precious horses.” 

“… you’re trolling me. I hope you’re trolling me, anyway.” He smiles at the Forest beatifically and Shoichi shakes his head. “How have you survived being a troll for a hundred years?”

“I am the World’s Strongest Sun, and one of the I Prescelti Sette for a reason, Shoichi Irie; add on the odd form of immortality that the curse offers and you get a lot of leeway in how you interact with people. I kicked several of the most powerful Skies in the World in the head for being idiots when they were teenagers, and I’m tempted to do it again in baka-Timoteo’s case -” the Forest twitches his fingers, and he jumps up onto Shoichi’s shoulder.

“Tsu-kun said you wanted to do more than just kick him in the head.”

“Does that worry you, Shoichi?”

“Only if you make Tsu-kun a cannibal in the process.” He resists the urge to grin; Azumi had allowed more of her hitwoman nature to seep into her offspring than she probably thought she had if Shoichi was so casual about the idea of him multiliating and feeding two Skies to each other. “It would make him sick; he doesn’t like pork.” 

He ruffles the boy’s brilliant red hair and laughs. “Good to know. I’ll have to make sure that Fon keeps his apprentice’s gyoza away from your Earth; I know they’re based on a pork recipe.” Shoichi sighs, and drifts - fairly competently; there was almost no sound from his movements - through the woods towards where the boys were still fighting - lucky-Tsuna had actually taken to the air, and was still trying to split up his River and his Glacier who very much were playing with each other at this point. (Which made sense; it was possibly the mirror of the relationship between a Mist and a Cloud? The same thing in slightly different states? That might be something for Verde to experiment with once they’d found his River; minimising his Glacier’s experimentation on the boys would keep Nana, Tsuyoshi and Fon happy.)

He hums, and Shoichi makes a curious sound as they both watch the aerial display. “I was just thinking that your Earth needs a non-lethal attack strong enough to handle those two. As much fun as letting them flirt like this is, sometimes he’ll need to make them both stop more quickly.”

Shoichi’s Flames flare slightly, and the Forest whistles, and lucky-Tsuna went from just trying to get between his sparring River and Glacier to hovering, his Flames throbbing in the air, and Smokin’ Bomb gasps as he and Ryohei finally reach where they’re standing. He’s still trying to figure out exactly what the Desert had seen when the Flames curl round the sparring duo, and they still and he recognises the way that they’re floating down to the ground, and both have startled expressions on their faces. “He’s pseudo-nullified their momentum; there are ways to work around it, but they require knowing what Tsu-kun’s done.” 

“How long can he hold someone like that without killing them - if he’s nullified _all_ of their momentum -”

“Pseudo-nullified, Hayato-kun. Their hearts are still beating just fine, and there’s enough oxygen in their blood and lungs that he can keep this up without dangerous side effects for several minutes.” The Desert gets a very thoughtful look and he’d have to ask exactly how Shamal had entertained the brat when he was recovering from having half of his internal organs replaced.

“Huh. Now I’m curious. And Shamal and Verde will want to have a look at what’s happening on a biological and physical level -” Shoichi’s Flames bristle at the implication that he was wrong about lucky-Tsuna’s technique, and he vaulted clear just as he felt the plants that Bianchi’s brother was standing on start to grow. 

He hums in amusement as the Desert gets tangled up in vines in a mildly suggestive way and there’s a flash of what he now knows are faux-Storm Flames flashing along the vines, and the two of them get into a stalemate though as he watches, Shoichi starts to win, and Leon shifts into a container full of popcorn which he merrily snacks on as the very tips of Shoichi’s vines vanish under clothing. “Remember what Tsuna-kun EXTREMELY said, Hayato, Shoichi -” the two boys pout at their Earth’s Mountain as he steps between them and starts to lift vines clear from Hayato. The vines come away very easily and he blinks at the flashes of the emerald green Forest Flames that don’t feel like Shoichi’s. He’d have to make a study of what each boy’s secondaries were; it was possible that some of them would require careful management to avoid them having ill-effects. One only had to look at the consequences of baka-Timoteo trying to ignore the fact that he was a Misty Sky, after all.

“That was mean, Tsuna!” “Little animal, we were having fun.”

“And Reborn still has more to teach us today, Takeshi, Kyoya - even if Sho-chan is playing with Hayato-kun.”

“But I - _Tsu-kun_ , you’re teasing me.”

“Of course I am, Sho-chan; you make it so easy sometimes.” The Forest pouts at his student and the vines fall away, rapidly reabsorbed by the soil. “Maybe we can, um, explore the uses for those vines later, though?”

He rolls his eyes at his student and his student’s Guardian, but doesn’t say anything - their behaviour was well within the normal range for a new set, even though he was working on his knowledge of those with Sky-oriented Flames - instead choosing to investigate the way that lucky-Tsuna’s Flames were still wrapped around his student’s River and Glacier. 

“Release your brats, lucky-Tsuna, and we’ll see if the two of them decide that they’re going to behave.”

“Oh, my nephew will behave; he knows my rules. I’d be more concerned about whether you were behaving, Reborn.” He freezes for a fraction of a second - which he will deny to his dying breath - at the realisation that he’d been snuck up on by a Cloud who was at least as strong in his Flames as Tsuyoshi.

“Hiiieee! Hibari-sama! Reborn, I _told_ you that you needed to report your presence!”

“Kyo-kun did report his taiyo-jiichan’s presence, Tsuna-chan; I was merely testing my skills and investigating why our ridiculous little kitten was flashing his Flames around.” He raises a mental eyebrow. “I assume our little kitten -” Kyoya bared his teeth at his cousin, “- explained the rules for Namimori to you.” He nods, placing the man; a strong Cloud, and Kyoya’s cousin, he had to be the Touma Tsuyoshi had mentioned. Annoyed at being ignored, and released by Tsuna from his Earth Flame restraints, Kyoya launched himself at the man, who sighed and picked the Glacier up by the metaphorical scruff of the neck. “You’re being adorable, Kyo-kun, but this is not one of our agreed upon sparring times, and you _also_ know the rules.”

Kyoya actually pouts, folding his arms and hanging from the older Hibari’s grip on the collar of his gakuran. “But we haven’t sparred for _weeks_ , hyou-nii.”

“Because I’ve been cleaning up your most recent mess, kitten. You know the sparring ceases when I have murders to solve.”

“But that wasn’t me!” Kyoya sounds adorably indignant at being accused of unsanctioned murder.

“Then who was it, kitten?”

“Um, Hibari-sama, that was tou-san. They, uh, objected strenuously to me leaving the baseball team, -”

“I had him down for the yakuza in my mental files, Yamamoto-kun, but the others, too? I thought he objected strenuously to firearms.” Touma’s eyes narrowed, and he put his hand up before the man could make the accusation; it was clear the man fulfilled a role similar to the one that the Vindice tried to claim in Italy. “You have a companion like oji-san, don’t you, Reborn. And -” the man tilts his head, looking at him through purple-tinted eyes “- a minor Mist Flame, which explains why there were enough traces on the scene that the case was shunted to me.”

“I assisted Tsuyoshi as a quid pro quo, Hibari Touma.” The man’s lips curved. “The bullets should match the rifling of one of the yakuza’s pistols.”

“Oh they do, but I need to sign off on the paperwork, and I prefer to know whether I need to discipline members of the herd before doing so.” The man drops Kyoya, who hisses like a cat with very ruffled fur and stalks towards his student who sighs and strokes his Flames against Kyoya’s, calming him. (He could see why the boy’s cousin called him a kitten, especially if the boy had been helping to police Namimori for the years his research suggested; he must have been adorable when he dragged his first ‘dead mouse’ to Touma for his cousin to inspect.)

He had speculated earlier, about whether he should orchestrate a meeting between Touma and Dino, but now he was convinced; he could see his Sky-student rather appreciating the man in front of him both aesthetically and intellectually, and he was a shameless matchmaker. “Do you have a Sky, Hibari Touma?”

“I have enough exposure to western mores that if you’d be more comfortable, I can accept Touma in _private_ from one of oji-san’s colleagues, Reborn. And no; I have met several, but have yet to find one which made me want to keep them.” He can see his youngest student facepalming out of the corner of his eyes, and the laughing amusement in Takeshi’s eyes that makes him wonder if the boy had seen some sort of spark between his father and the man in front of him before.

“Then you must join us for dinner, Touma. Several of my other students are in town, and the Sky amongst them is rather Cloudy and still in need of several -” he picks his word carefully, decides that he likes the one his Swamp used, “- companions; he has a Rain, a Mist and a Sun at the moment, and I have a young Lightning that I suspect will fit in well and help to protect him in the social sphere, but he is in need of a Cloud and a Storm still.”

“ _Reborn._ ”

“My older students are all well aware that I matchmake for them _ruthlessly_ , lucky-Tsuna. I’d be matchmaking you if you didn’t have such a high uh, gravitational field.” There’s a groan from his newest student at the bad pun. “You have all six ‘companions’ already, even if you haven’t fully bonded with your Mountain and Swamp, yet. That’s faintly miraculous, brat; most Skies take years to find their whole set - look at pipsqueak Dino; he’s been Active for almost two decades, and until he arrived in Japan he only had a single bond, though his Cloudiness and the need for similarly Cloudy elements did exacerbate the problem.” He’s padding Dino’s age a little there, but he doesn’t want the Cloud in front of him to baulk at the idea of meeting his Sky-student.

“Then, as it’s close to dinnertime -” he was still getting used to the latitude shift and what it did to his sense of time, so he hadn’t quite realised the time, “- why don’t you put Tsunayoshi down so he can lead the way to where dinner is to take place, Kyo-kun?” The Glacier pouts at his cousin but complies, and he’s not sure whether that’s relief or annoyance on lucky-Tsuna’s face, but his student, less clumsy now, leads the way back through the woods; Touma had sighed and offered him an arm, and he took advantage of it. “So tell me about the Sky you’re trying to tempt me with, Reborn. I know the Family name; they’re big enough the Clan has dealings with them, but who is he _personally_ ; who are his other Elements, and which of the Flame Underworld’s virtues and vices does he indulge in?”

“I beat the majority of his vices out of him, but he does enjoy his tattoos and one of his other new elements is already encouraging him to continue indulging; he’s more businessman than mafioso, though given the Underworld -”

“Mhmm. I assume he’s permitted on ‘Mafia Island’?” The quotes around the name are clearly audible.

“I’d have beaten him to death years ago if he’d gotten himself banned. No student of mine is permitted to indulge in trafficking humans, drugs or the worse sort of weapons. He does run the skin trade in his area, but Sky Flames make it easy to confirm that participation is voluntary, and much of the gambling, especially around horse racing.”

“Acceptable.”

“His Rain is new since he arrived in Japan; I introduced him to Tsuyoshi and they got along _very_ well.” They step beneath a set of trees bent into what with hindsight was clearly a door, and then they were stepping into Nana’s dining room, the boys already scampering to be seated - Kyoya’s doing he presumes - he doubts it’s Hayato; while the boy was a Desert, Shamal had never specialised in transportation workings, instead relying on favours exchanged with Viper - and Nana smiles at the additional guest.

“I did wonder if I might see you, Hibari-san; anyone with eyes knows you do much of the watching over Kyoya-kun for your cousin, especially when she’s away in Kyoto.” 

“Reborn invited me to meet one of his students, -” his hand tightens in the man’s hair, warningly, “- Nana-san. I hope I’m not intruding?”

“Not at all, Hibari-san; Miki made sure I could always welcome an extra guest to my table.” A phone chirps and she checks it, smiling. “Dino-kun should be here soon.” Lucky-Tsuna bounces, and he shakes his head, amused; he suspected it was the fact that he was torturing someone else for a short period. Touma laughs, and murmurs something to that effect, and if he wasn’t cursed - well he had had a small crush on Fon before.

Dino freezes like a deer in the headlights when he steps into the house; fortunately, Romario had proceeded him, and the other Sun pulls his Sky out of Tsuyoshi and Shamal’s way. “You can flirt with the new Cloud later, pipsqueak-Dino.” His words snap his Sky-student out of his daze, and Tsuyoshi rolls his eyes at him, removing the ring that hid his tattoos, and he hums, understanding the message; perhaps he won’t ask Dino about anything too tricky. 

He jumps down from Touma’s shoulder, leaves him to speak with Dino and the boy’s other elements, and Nana picks him up, carrying him through into her sanctuary, and he squeaks a minor protest - he hadn’t thought she was serious about sharing her kitchen - that he’ll deny. She thrusts a spoon into his hand and chatters at him and it’s soothing, and pleasant, and he indulges in a brief fantasy of doing this as an adult, and finishing the evening in a very different way than they would be. 


	30. Chapter 30

He stretches and yawns, and Leon blows a bubble at him, and it takes him a moment to realise why he’s so content. Pipsqueak-Dino was within shouting distance of having a full set of Guardians, his other students finally had bonds to settle them, and when he’d made a tiny sound of longing as Nana and he had peeped through lucky-Tsuna’s cracked door at the puppy pile the boys had made, she’d gone thoughtful. She’d picked him up and carried him into the spare room he’d shifted his things into, and then, when he was in pyjamas carried him through into her bedroom - definitely hers, not hers and Idiotsu’s - and curled around him.

“Sleep well?”

“Very.”

“Good. For someone who delights in chaos, you make a very good sleep-companion, Reborn-san. I’d expected you to be wrigglier, if I’m honest.” 

“Mmm. It’s a survival mechanism.”

“Ah.” She presses a kiss into his hair and he accepts the affectionate gesture before squirming out of her arms. “I’ll be downstairs making breakfast if you want to take the first shower? Tsuna won’t be awake for another half an hour or so, and I doubt any of the other boys will crawl out of their puppy pile until they’ve ‘said’ good morning to him.” 

“Do I need to leave you any hot water?”

“Unless you want me to ferment your coffee beans, yes.”

“I’ll bill baka-Timoteo for a flash heater. If the boys are going to nest here as well as our set, then we’ll need one.” Her lips quirk into a smile. 

“Oh, if you can find me a plumber you don’t mind being in the house, we can do the work immediately. One thing I can say for Idiotsu -” he snickers as she uses his nickname for her husband, “- is that he wasn’t stingy with the funds he gave me.” He hums; the likelihood was that much of the funds sent had been the Vongola Trust’s stipend for a Sky child. Whether it would continue in light of Tsuna’s Earth Flames, or be replaced by a similar payment from the Cavallone trust, given the ‘taste’ of lucky-Tsuna’s weak Sky was very equine in its nature was very much up for debate.

“Perhaps.” She wraps a yukata around herself, covering the soft linen night dress she’d been wearing, and he jumps off the bed, his night-cap’s bobble swinging and making Nana giggle. “But I’m intent on bleeding baka-Timoteo’s personal account dry - he’s not yet named Tsuna as his heir, so his expenses are baka-Timoteo’s _personal_ costs to bear -” 

“Then have fun. And leave me some hot water.” 

He indulges himself, utilising the illusion on his pacifier - he has a quiet day planned, personally, so he’ll deal with the pain - to _full_ effect. (He makes a face, afterwards, when he realises how his fantasy had shifted from Nana’s warm form curled around him to one featuring Verde, Fon and Skull. His Glacier he’d expected, but the other two were more of a surprise.) He shrinks back down once he’s done and whimpers under the water he makes scorchingly hot to ease the pacifier inflicted aches enough to get back out of the shower. He’s a little tense and sore, but it’s manageable and Leon shapes himself into a heatpack and curls around his back, heating almost beyond bearability. It helps though, and he pulls on something more informal than his suit.

“Maa, maa, if you weren’t a toddler, Reborn-san, I’d think you’d just gotten laid.” The River would know; he looks smug, too, and he wonders whether his Earth-student or one of the others would be the one to limp ever so slightly as they came back downstairs. 

He’d have to show the boy his adult form at some point, but he merely smiles toothily at him and slips between the bannisters, taking the drop to the ground floor and hiding the wince at least semi-successfully given the way his Swamp looks at him. “Come here, Reborn, and take a seat where I can see you’re not doing anything … Stupid.” He makes a slight grumbling sound, but complies with his Swamp’s demand, and is rewarded with a beaming smile and the bowl - which she’d obviously used to make coffee buttercream icing - to scrape out. He looks up at her assessingly, and she shakes her head. “No, you can’t have the cake yet. It’s for this evening.”

He settles back, mollified, and uses his fingers to scoop up the remnants of the icing and watches the stairs, waiting for the other boys to emerge from Tsuna’s bedroom. The bowl, however, is clean before the first of them emerge, and he’s checking his emails - pipsqueak-Dino had managed to produce several lesson plans, covering multiple languages - when they tumble down the stairs.

He raises an eyebrow when the only one of the group that’s moving at all awkwardly is the Glacier, who glares at him and he bites his cheek to avoid snickering. 

The lesson plans are acceptable, and even if pipsqueak-Dino had just acquired a Cloud, it was time for the boys to do some work and he taps out an email - copying it to Romario, because there was no way that his Sky-student was going to voluntarily leave Tsuyoshi’s private quarters at Takesushi unless someone made him (he includes a threat that he’d make Romario give the Talk if pipsqueak-Dino wasn’t dressed and ready to instruct by the time the boys arrive; whether it’d work given Romario had been the one to give the Talk to Dino was another matter.)

Breakfast is raucous; Fon’s grandson tolerates the noise surprisingly well, though the boy chose to stand and cradle his bowl rather than sit down and he almost pities any students who irritate the Glacier today. “Pipsqueak-Dino has sent me lesson plans for Sicilian, Church Latin and English; I’m told your English is fluent, Kyoya?” 

The Glacier answers him in surprisingly accentless English - he assumes as heir to Fon’s clan he’d had language tutors from toddlerhood - with a breakdown of the state of lucky-Tsuna and the rest of the set’s language skills. “… I will join them for the Sicilian. If the Horse can source a primer for the Church Latin, I will study that between disciplining the students at Nami-chuu and Nami-koko.”

“I have Sicilian, obviously, my Church Latin needs practice, and my English is just fine -” Smoking Bomb is a little defensive, and he snorts; he’d assumed his languages were acceptable. Given that Kyoya had had training from Viper in illusions, he was going to put the boy in the Glacier’s hands to torment, and when Shamal wasn’t otherwise occupied, he’d throw him in the same room, too. (And then run and hide before they dragged him in; he needed to work on his Earth Flames, not his Mist which he was quite adept with, thank you very much.) “- I could do with some practise of my verbal Japanese.”

“Your accent is _appalling_ , Hayato.” The Glacier is teasing the boy, in exactly the same way that Fon had teased him over his Japanese before the Fated Day. “We can _work_ on that.”

“Hiiieee, Kyoya-san!” Lucky-Tsuna looks vaguely panicked and he can’t help but laugh; his student had some things to learn about Hibari body language. He was probably cheating a little bit, given his long exposure to Fon; he doubted most people even realised the Glacier had moods other than predatory. “What did I say about not using violence within our group?!”

“Hn. Wasn’t planning to, little carnivore. Our Italian does owe me though.” Smoking Bomb squirms and he resists the urge to snicker; he had a good idea of what the nature of the forfeit was going to be when the Desert failed to pronounce a word right.

“What’s Verde-kun’s favourite food, Reborn?” He smiles as his Swamp’s words come floating out of the kitchen. “He strikes me as someone who routinely forgets to eat.”

“Mmm. Despite being from Western France, he likes risottos, especially if you use white wine and chicken broth to make it.” He jumps down from the well-padded high-chair he uses at Miki’s table in favour of rejoining his Swamp in the kitchen; risotto is finicky and he’s not sure whether she’s made it before.

Nana lifts him up to the counter, and he keeps her company while she throws together risotto, tilting his head in amused surprised as he realises that she’s using her Swamp Flames on the rice grains as she adds the broth to speed up the process of making the dish. “I asked Bianchi-chan which dish she missed being able to cook the most, and apparently it’s Hayato-kun’s favourite. When he trusts her again, she really wants to be able to cook his comfort food for him. Her Swamp Flames are very powerful and very Active, so the best thing seemed to be to find them something constructive to do.”

“Mhmm. If you look into food chemistry online, there may be things you can use?” She nods, and hands him the wooden spoon and he obeys her unspoken order to keep the risotto moving so it wouldn’t burn. He sneaks a taste, and finds that despite only having been on for a few minutes it was already well on the way to being cooked. Nana laughs and hands him a large flask with a Mist working on it, which has him raising an eyebrow at her.

“If you ladle it in now, then I can add the parmesan when we get to where our Glacier has denned up.” He flicks his eyes to the flask, and her lips curve. “Now the haze has gone, there are some things that are far easier to shop for in Namimori; I think that we have more gaijin and half-gaijin here than anyone outside the town realises.” He complies, handing the flask to Nana and his Swamp puts it into a shoulder bag with all sorts of other tasty things, presumedly to tempt Verde from his pursuit of Science! “You’re moving as if you’re sore, Reborn. Do you want the backpack to ride in?” 

He hesitates for a moment, but nods, and she puts the bag of food down to fish the toddler-carrier out of the cupboard. He hops in gratefully, squirming to get comfortable and she swings it onto her back and picks the bag up again. 

“I sent Bianchi-koi to bed when I came downstairs. Did you tell her that she needed to stand guard overnight, or did she choose to do that?”

“She’s being paid to guard you.”

“Ah.” He’s grateful she leaves it there, walking instead into the dining room. “Takesushi, boys.”

“Kaa-chan -”

“I agreed to sign you out of Nami-chuu, but you still need to study Tsu-kun. Especially given what _he’s_ dragged you into.” He snickers as Fon’s grandson kidnaps Smoking Bomb again; given that he was a Cloud-equivalent the fact that he was being sociable enough to abduct one of the others to tutor without being asked was amazing and he wouldn’t press things too hard. That leaves pipsqueak-Dino with lucky-Tsuna himself, Takeshi - who was better at English than his scores suggested according to Kyoya; probably baseball’s fault - Ryohei, and Shoichi whose English was very _specialised_ indeed. The four of them would be a handful for pipsqueak-Dino unless he thought to use his Flames to help himself, but that was its own lesson for his Sky-student.

Takesushi is quiet when they enter, but given that the territory that covered the restaurant had recognised Takeshi to allow them all entry. “Takeshi, why don’t you take the others into one of the private rooms; I’d prefer that none of you gets an eyeful if Dino-kun and his set have gotten distracted.” He agrees with Nana; even if the boys were exploring each other, they didn’t need to walk in on any of the more lascivious antics of the older set.

They’re all clothed, at least. He’ll take that; he can ignore the rather vivid Flame traces that have Tsuyoshi and Touma preening like contented and well fed big cats. “So you decided that Dino was to your taste then, Touma?”

“Very much so. And he has a delightful Mist, too.”

“I’m sure he does. The boys are downstairs; you might want to send Dino downstairs before they decide to come and investigate.” Tsuyoshi winces and then glances at Shamal who sighs, but nods and sits cross-legged beside an innocuous object that he assumes is the anchor of the Mist working that protected Tsuyoshi’s private quarters, shutting his eyes and he can just feel him prodding at it at the edge of his own Flames. “Nana and I are going to Kokuyo land to make sure Verde’s been feeding himself.”

Romario snorts. “If I remember what you told Dino and I when Verde was ‘testing’ a new invention on the Villa, I doubt he has been.” He sighs; the other Sun was probably right, though he did hope that given he was the scientist’s Earth, his orders might carry _some_ weight. “Dino’s just finishing getting dressed; coaxing his Flames back beneath his skin was proving rather … trying this morning.” As if summoned, his Sky-student stumbles out of the bedroom, hair a mess that he recognises from the latter years of when he was still tutoring him full time, but fully clothed and walking with no visible limp.

“Reborn -”

“The boys are in one of the private rooms. Which language you start with is up to you, pipsqueak-Dino.” His Sky-student nods, yawning, and he’s impressed that he’d actually managed to pull his Flames back beneath his skin. “Ryohei hasn’t been for a run yet, though.”

Shamal groans. “You’re evil, Reborn.”

“No, I’m taking things easy.”

“Send Ryohei out for a run before you try and teach him, Dino. He’s retained a Sun’s over-clocked activity levels and added the _stubborness_ of a lightning.” 

His Sky-student pinches the bridge of his nose at his Mist’s words. “I agree with Shamal, so shoo before I do something I’ll regret later, Reborn.” 

Nana laughs, and before he can retort, carries him back out of Tsuyoshi’s private quarters and doesn’t slow until they’re nearly at Kokuyo Land. “You _are_ feeling evil, Reborn-kun.”

“Mhmm. Pipsqueak-Dino would spend all his vacation time in bed if I let him, Nana. And this is a vacation; no-one’s trying to kill him, and he’s not having to conduct negotiations and raids.” She shakes her head and keeps walking. 

“Are we sneaking up on our Glacier, Reborn-kun, or announcing our arrival?”

“As much fun as surprising him would be, we probably should announce ourselves.” Leon wakes up, crawling down off his fedora, and blinks his eyes at him slowly. He nods, and his chameleon shifts into an oversized dragonfly and flies ahead of them. 

There’s a screech from the direction of the room that Verde had set up his laboratory, and Nana follows the noise; when they get to the lab, Verde’s trying to catch Leon and he snickers, attracting his Glacier’s attention. 

“Reborn I will skin your damn chameleon! He keeps trying to eat my super-computer!”

“And he’ll give it back. Consider it a back up policy.”

“Hmph.”

“Verde-kun, have you eaten today?”

“Not that Haru-chan has seen, Nana-san, and Haru-chan has been here since dawn, desu.” Nana shakes her head and hands the bag of food to the young Lightning he’d decided would suit Dino. “Verde-san didn’t listen to Haru-chan. Haru-chan is glad Verde-san’s Earth is here to make him listen.”

“Traitor.” The young Lightning sticks her tongue out at Verde, and he gives in to the urge to laugh as Nana swings the toddler-carrier off her back, and releases him from it.

“If Haru-chan’s sensei would listen to Haru-chan about food, Haru-chan wouldn’t have to tattle on him to his Earth.”

“Why don’t you come help me prepare the meal I brought with me, Haru-chan?” The lightning nods and bounces, and follows his Swamp back out of the lab, leaving him alone with Verde.

“Do I need to make regular meals an order, Verde? Lucky-Tsuna’s rules for his Science!-oriented Forest make sense to me, but if you can’t obey them living out here, you’ll need to join us at Nana’s for the time being -” Verde looks horrified, and he bites the inside of his cheek to avoid smirking at the scientist. One of the ways hindsight had told him that Luce was a failure as a Sky was her inability to make Verde take care of himself; that duty had rotated between himself, Skull, and a less extent Viper and Fon. Though Viper’s primary method of forcing self-care on Verde was to cut off access to his funds unless he spent a minimum quantity on food, rather than bullying him in person. He grins. “- Kaiman, can we resurrect our old deal?” 

Verde’s familiar grins, toothily, and he makes an amused sound as Verde finds himself being herded in the direction that Nana had taken Haru off in. “The pacifiers mean we don’t have to eat, Reborn. They keep us in stasis, undying until the Man in the Iron Hat removes them -”

“- that _isn’t an excuse_. The stasis is imperfect, and you turn into an obsessive, cranky _mess_ when you haven’t eaten, Verde.”

“Would you like some wine with your risotto, Verde-kun?” His Glacier perks up as Nana sets a bowl of the rich, thick and delicious smelling risotto in front of him, and Haru giggles, but tucks into her own bowlful even before his Swamp has managed to pour their Glacier a glass of wine.

“Food, Verde, will stop being optional. Understood?” The scientist nods, a forkful of risotto already in his mouth, and he shakes his head. “Had you considered what will happen to an uncared for body when the stasis is lifted?” His Glacier’s eyes go wide and he can almost follow the line of thought he’d worked through with Shamal in them. “And as I doubt you’ve had any sleep, either, we’re going to take a nap once you’ve eaten.”


	31. Chapter 31

He aches, but given the way he’s been abusing the illusion of adulthood, he sort of deserves it, he supposed. But he’s warm, and tangled in blankets and it’s the second time in less than twelve hours - unless he and Verde have slept the clock around? - that he’s woken with his face buried in someone’s hair. Verde’s hair - unlike Nana’s - smells like he needs to force him into the shower. A little musky rather than unpleasant, but there was the threat of it degenerating into an actual stink.

“You’re coming to dinner with the rest of us, and if you argue you can spend the entire meal tied to a chair and being fed by Haru-chan, Verde. And then I’m throwing you in a bath-tub and if you’re being childish -” he leaves the threat incomplete but he knows Verde’s heard and understood him because there’s a shudder.

“Cruel, Reborn.” He pulls Verde closer, and his Glacier complies at least briefly and he mourns the fact that their pre-nap experiment would need to be a very rare treat indeed, given his Mist is still guttering rather than burning bright, even after a _minimum_ of six hours sleep. “Are you -”

“Sore. Mist’s exhausted -” he wants to be adult enough to nip at the column of Verde’s throat, not stuck in this chibi form that erased every, uh, _entertaining_ sensation, and his Glacier twists to look at him. He also presses cool Flames to his scorched Earth, ghosting over their surface and burrowing into some of the cracks and fissures that the pacifier’s erratic pull on his Sun Flames had created. If someone tried to yank Verde away from him, the attempt would probably force those same cracks and fissures so wide they’d be impossible to recover from, but for now it was soothing to have someone twined with his soul so intimately. Positions reversed from the ones that he and Daniela had been edging towards, but still - he waves his mental hands, failing at words even inside his own head.

“We’re going to do that again at some point, aren’t we?”

“When m’less exhausted, or we find a Desert for the set I’m apparently building.” Verde hums thoughtfully.

“Given that we have other Flames to use, it would be interesting to see if a Seal on our Sky-spectrum Flames would be enough to persuade the pacifiers to ‘fall’ off, or if they’d somehow manage to eat our Flames through a Seal …”

He hisses, mind wheeling and shakes his head almost vehemently. “Remember what Checkerface said about people taking the pacifiers. Doing _that_ even if it worked, rather than breaking the curse would mean it fell on my students, Verde. On Dino and Shamal; Romario, Tsuyoshi and Touma; probably that baby Lightning you’ve been training - and the Storm they’ve still to find. He’s the nearest, strongest Sky and they’re harmonised to him, so they’d likely be pacifier bait.”

“Unless we relocated to run the experiment and left them here to supervise the children; I suspect we could bribe Lal into letting us experiment in the basement of the CEDEF …” he’s incredibly tempted. Watching Idiotsu struggle with the Curse would be hysterical, but would both deprive him of his other plans for vengeance on him, and require them to dig Aria out of her current hidey-hole and he was reluctant to risk his daughter, as much as he hated her mother.

“The risk of fallout is too high for my tastes right now. Let me get the boys trained and able to stand on their own feet first; we can figure out precautions to take to avoid unintended casualties.” He feels Verde’s pout in his Flames and resists the urge to laugh. “There’s nothing to stop you writing a specification for the experiment, Verde. Perhaps for the Cloud Pacifier, given Skull is apparently truly dual-flamed? A Seal would hurt him, but not compromise his Flames to the extent it compromised lucky-Tsuna’s.”

“Agreed, though I’m not sure lucky-Tsuna would agree that his Flames were _compromised_ , Reborn.” He hmphs and leans in, planting a kiss on his Glacier’s nose - not that it does anything for either of them, other than being an affectionate gesture - and notes the gleam in Verde’s green-grey eyes that bodes ill for someone.

“I have first dibs on baka-Timoteo, and on Idiotsu -”

“- greedy. Won’t you share with your own, Reborn?” Verde smirks at him, “… not that it’s them that I was considering conducting my next experiment on.” He groans; he’d walked into that trap. “And as to our need for a Desert, have you considered that Lal’s Flames may have broken in the same way as your student’s have?” He sucks in a breath; he should have thought of that, though the idea makes him shudder. Not at the possible addition of Lal - and as he would follow her, Colonello - but at the realisation that one of them had been not just _wounded_ by the pacifiers but had their soul _broken_ and he hadn’t realised. “Ah. You hadn’t. Lal hides it well, but you might want to ask your youngest student what his life was like before he found his Earth, ne?”

“From the hints he’s dropped -” he shivers, “- it’s just as well She’s dead, otherwise I’d be willing to conduct the experiment you suggested _now_.”

“But She is, and you’re too fond of your daughter - despite her mother - to let me experiment on her without having taken proper precautions.” The greedy Flames - that had his own coated, protectively - retreat a little, and when that retreat gives him back a little of his Will to move, he glares at Verde who laughs more giddily than he’s ever see the scientist laugh. “Was testing you, -”

“Did I pass?” He raises an eyebrow.

“She never let me influence her, so yes.”

“We’re still going to have dinner at Nana’s and I’m still throwing you in a shower.”

“I wasn’t objecting to either option. And Haru-chan already knows I’m an inconveniently small adult, so she wouldn’t have carried out your threat for you _anyway_.” He pouts. That wasn’t fair. “I was teaching her the value of her time, and she asked a well thought out question, so I answered it. Truthfully.” Which explained the odd look he’d gotten, but at least meant the girl was likely to _ask_ before picking one of them up again. He supposed he had rather set himself up for that given the way their first interaction had gone. “And I ran Tsunayoshi’s numbers against Dino’s, Daniela’s, Timoteo’s and against the ones we’ve extrapolated for Xanxus and several of the other Skies in the Alliance. His intuition at least twice as effective as Daniela’s, and far exceeds Timoteo’s, which was never that well developed, if you remember -”

“He always fell for my pranks, and he’s oblivious to the fact we all _know_ he isn’t Xanxus’s father.”

“Exactly.” Verde pouts, just a little bit when he wriggles out of the blankets. Oddly he could still feel some shadows of what they’d done when they were using the adult illusion, but he pushes that to one side, and stretches, ignoring the limitations of his chibi form to flow through one of the pseudo-sun-salutations that he’d picked up from Fon. It was harder to make this form do what he was telling it without his Mist to aid things, and that was something he hadn’t had to face for _years_.

“At least Leon was kind enough to re-dress us.” Verde shudders, and he agrees; the dysphoria and disconnect from their chibi forms could be highly disturbing, and he didn’t want to associate the memory of their earlier playtime with their chibi-ness. “So up and out of bed, Verde, before I set fire to the blankets.” Lightning Flames dance over them, but he has a new trick to do with that, and his Glacier shrieks as the top layer of their blanket nest starts to smoulder and throws himself out of the bed.

“How the hell did you _do_ that? I’d made the blanket Hard to burn!”

He smirks. “To my Sun Flames.”

“Fuck. Geothermal energy, right?” He nods, amused he’s gotten his Glacier to swear at him twice in quick succession. “Your own trick, or one of your newest student’s?”

“Haven’t seen lucky-Tsuna use it _yet_ ; he seems to have specialised in gravitational anomalies. Does that fit with Shōichi’s interests when it comes to Science?”

Verde hums, thoughtfully. “I haven’t really examined the breadth of his talents yet; from the research notes he delivered me he’s somewhat of a polymath, but if I had to say which angle he’s come at lucky-Tsuna’s Flames from, it’s most likely that he’s been using particle physics and weak and strong forces as a model to experiment with.” He nods; that made sense from the tricks he’s seen lucky-Tsuna pull, up to and including the speed-trick he’s caught the boy using. 

“Mhmm. Be careful what you give him for the moment so that we can keep lucky-Tsuna adding tricks to his repertoire. Perhaps concentrate on Botany with him?” Verde nods, and Leon shifts in his hands, turning himself into a cellphone and he taps out a request to Kyōya’s committee for a ride back to Namimori; his Flames were still a little low to tempt Touma’s minions by driving-while-chibi.

It only takes a moment to get a response, and he shakes his head in amusement at the speed; obviously either Kyōya - or the very fixated Lightning that stalked him - had briefed the delinquents they herded to obey his instructions with alacrity. He’d have to check if they had been told to obey Verde’s instructions, too, and get an addendum added to it about not agreeing to participate in one of his Glacier’s experiments without Kyōya’s approval. (Of course the younger Glacier may have realised that his men needed the warning, but hadn’t given it, instead considering it a form of natural selection.)

“We should have a car shortly. Our ‘nephew’s’ minions are very efficient.” Verde gives him a curious look. “I’ve decided that calling Kyōya nephew is an excellent way to wind Fon up, and he’s so much fun to fight when he’s irritated.” He can feel the ripple of amusement in his Glacier’s Flames, but as Verde neither laughs nor says anything he leaves the subject alone.

The car that shows up is driven by Kusakabe himself. He suspects, given the way the Lightning was holding himself, he was suffering Kyōya withdrawal and that he knew if he drove them to Nana’s the woman would invite her in to join them all for their evening meal.

The journey back to Nana’s is smooth, and quiet, the car unobtrusive but still luxurious, protected by just enough Mist to make their presence - and the lack of infant carseats - invisible to those outside the car. His suspicions, at least in part, are confirmed when Kusakabe follows them into the building hopefully. 

While the boys weren’t downstairs, he could feel the thrum of their Flames in their nest upstairs, and the living area was occupied with a pride of big cats - when their Flames felt that smug, it was the only possible descriptor - while Nana, a whisper at the back of his mind, was amused and content and in the kitchen. 

He turns in that direction and smiles appreciatively at the sight of Bianchi actually trying to cook something other than her poisonous food, with his Swamp supervising, and Haru perched on the counter, being the same bubbly girl he’d run into weeks earlier; Verde had obviously put some serious thought into his training programme, given the way Mafia Lightnings often behaved. Given the feel of things, Dino was well on the way to bonding with her, and the entire set of Flames pooling in the room had a distinct paternal/fraternal feel to their claim on the girl, which wasn’t surprising given the age gap and the preferences of the men in the room.

“Are all the boys upstairs?” Nana hums an affirmative answer to his question as he jumps up onto the kitchen counter to see what she and Bianchi are trying to cook; he’s impressed to see it isn’t purple, at least.

“Does your familiar eat, Verde-kun, and if they do, do they prefer raw or cooked food?”

“Kaiman does not _need_ to eat, but he enjoys raw chicken and raw beef.” Nana smiles, scrapping some of the chicken she’d been in the process of chopping up into a small dish and placing it on the floor for the caiman to devour. 

“And Leon, Reborn-kun? I forgot to ask.”

“I feed him on insects; he’s been stalking your garden and tells me the ashidaka are delicious.”

“As long as he leaves enough to keep the mosquitos from becoming a nuisance during tsuyu, then he’s welcome to eat what he can hunt, Reborn-kun. Though he might want to avoid eating Shamal-san’s bugs, ne?”

“Leon knows better than to eat those unless he wants a stomach ache.” He shakes his head at the response from the other room.

“Mmm. Shamal, is Leon actually male? After all he did give birth to Enzo …” 

“Does it matter, Sky-brat? Leon doesn’t mind male pronouns anymore than your tricksy Mist does.” Dino pouts at him, and Haru giggles, and slaps a hand over her mouth, making his Sky-student smile. “And Haru-chan, Dino-kun makes a very good pillow; warm and when he’s feeling comfortable, very free with his Flames.” She squeaks and shakes her head and Touma smiles, amused.

“Come and cuddle our Sky, little one. We won’t bite.” Haru gives Touma a speaking look, and the man laughs. “We’re all very not straight, little one, with tastes that run decades older than you. My clan has tried to get me interested in a wife, and they’ve been failing for thirty years. Watching them fail to tempt Kyōoya into such a relationship will be amusing; he’s already fixated on Tsunayoshi-kun.” He watches the little Lightning pick her way through the Flame currents and settle on the couch next to Dino, and bites his cheek not to laugh when she’s immediately pulled onto her new Sky’s lap to be cuddled the way he’s seen Dino cuddle the Villa’s prickly barn cats. (He’s not sure whether he’s imagining the purr.)

“I did it. I did it!” He turns his head and is treated to the sight of Bianchi dishing up a meal that, while it contained Swamp Flames, seemed to have used them to improve the dish rather than make it poisonous. Nana smiles, and rewards her with a kiss that makes him feel like a voyeur, before dishing up her own part of the meal. “Reborn, _please_ don’t tell Hayato that I helped make dinner? He’s gotten better about seeing me, but I don’t want to know if the very idea of me cooking would trigger a relapse.”

“Let me taste it, so I know it’s safe, and then you can tidy up while we call the boys down, Bianchi.” She proffers a bowl, and he takes a decent bite of it, allowing his Flames, with their ingrained paranoia, to test her food, and isn’t surprised when they deem it ‘safe’. “You did well, sweet girl. Help Nana set the table, and I’ll get the boys.” Bianchi blushes, and Nana smiles, and he leaves Verde perched on a stool in the kitchen while he ‘sneaks’ upstairs.

He uses Leon in the form of a bō-staff to open the door, not wanting to be in physical range of the boys if he managed to startle them; even Shōichi had a wicked streak, and Hayato’s Flame-use had come on leaps and bounds now he knew what it was (not that the boy hadn’t been dangerous before, with his preferences for Shamal’s secondary weapon, but with the addition of a consciously accessible Construction Flame he’d started pulling explosives out of thin air, and Kyōya was only egging him on).

The six of them - Ryohei included - were a comfortable pile on the pushed- together futon, and the door’s silent opening gets him a half-lidded stare from the Glacier, which he has to say the boy’s cousin and his great-grandfather do _far_ more impressively. Kyōya’s just makes him want to coo. “Dinner is ready, and if you’re not down in the next five minutes, I’m sure that Dino and the others will finish it off for you.”

The boys tumble down the stairs in front of him, and Bianchi gives him a grateful smile when Hayato digs into the bowl and gives Nana a thumbs up almost before he’s sat down. Tsuna’s eyes go wide when his mother leans over to kiss Bianchi on the lips, and the squeak is _adorable_. 

“Kaa-chan -” Takeshi is the fastest, leaning over and covering his Earth’s mouth before he can say anything unfortunate, which is a relief; not because he thinks lucky-Tsuna has an idealised image of his parents’ marriage - the boy certainly doesn’t - but because Tsuna’s Flames had been unconsciously courting the younger Swamp, and him getting hissy at his mother for poaching would have been _messy_.

“Maa, maa. Tou-san has Dino-san now, Tsuna. So why shouldn’t your kaa-san have Bianchi-san? They’re cute together -”

He laughs, letting the boys bicker together, and raises an interrogative eyebrow at Shamal; he gets a ‘might as well’ shrug from the Mist, and as the majority of the bowls were empty, he leans over and - just loud enough for Hayato to hear - murmurs a suggestion that his student congratulate the Swamp he’s courting on learning to control her Flames so quickly.

The Desert goes pale, but that shades quickly into disbelief when he realises that he feels fine, and Shamal goes subtly limp with relief, though it’s disguised by the way he’s sprawled against Dino. He assumes it’s at the evidence that everything he did to help his grandchildren had been successful; including, he assumed, the therapy the Mist had subjected Hayato to. His Sky-student runs soothing Flames over the man and then startles, and oh, he does so love the chaos that having his ‘Family’ together created. He wondered if Shamal had admitted to the fact he’d given birth to at least one of his children himself, or if he’d just decided his Sky needed an heir and as he was capable had made sure things … happened.

Dino’s Flames flood the room, vicious and protective and possessive, showing off his Cloudy nature and a strength that would challenge his daughter’s in one breath-taking moment that has everyone’s attention snapping to him, and Shamal burying his head in his hands. 

(He has to say this, it’s a definite distraction from the way Hayato was currently wobbling at the fact he’d safely eaten his sister’s cooking; lucky-Tsuna was bolstering his Desert, but everyone was focused on Dino and Shamal now, even Verde and Nana, and given the dignity of teens, it was just as well.)

“Che. Yes, I’m pregnant, now stop being Stupid, Sky-mine. I’ve done this before safely. Lavina was an incredibly easy pregnancy -”

“- you carried Mamma? A Mist can get _pregnant_?!”

“- your Kaa-chan’s words make more sense now. Huh.”

“- can Haru-chan babysit?”

“- hn. Fighting this you appeals, Haneuma.”

“- Kyōya, _no_.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes my plotbunnies skitter away from me, and sometimes they come charging back to pounce on me unexpectedly, as this one just has. I will try to tempt it into sticking around for a while this time. ~~Draft snippets get thrown up on nightmare-aoife.tumblr.com when I'm working on things.~~ So things no longer get thrown up on tumblr as my account disappeared in the purge and I don't have the energy to rebuild it. I do however enjoy chatting in the comments if you have questions, and will share snippets if people's comments give me ideas.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [What Happens in the Black Hole Stays in the Black Hole](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13970280) by [OnceABlueMoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceABlueMoon/pseuds/OnceABlueMoon)
  * [[Collection] E-Rated AU Scenes from “From Sky to Earth”](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15782322) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)
  * [[Collection] E-Rated Canonical Scenes from “From Sky to Earth”](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16307429) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)




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